


Come hell or high water

by SassAngel



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-01
Updated: 2012-08-01
Packaged: 2017-11-11 05:20:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 44,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/474944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassAngel/pseuds/SassAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1750 BC, Egypt: The Kebechet, children of Anubis, are defeated by the Nefertem, children of Bastet, and exiled to the land that would one day become North America. </p><p>2012 AD, Texas: Kebechet descendent Jared spends most of his days lamenting his regimented future on the Ridge and bristling under the isolated lifestyle dictated by the cat goddess Bastet and her Nefertem guard detail. When his brother and sister vanish without a trace, Jared is forced to re-evaluate everything and everyone he's ever known in his quest to find them. Joined by his Kebechet friends, stalked by some hostile Nefertem, while busy avoiding his sometime boyfriend, he’s about to take on everyone from Osiris to Isis in an epic struggle to figure out what the hell is going on, and why Jared seems to be so important to them all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come hell or high water

[ ](http://s1119.photobucket.com/albums/k624/smokingbunny/BigBangs/spn_j2_bb2012/final%20artwork/?action=view&current=header-1.jpg)

  


_The prophecy of Neferti has been debated since people first learned to put their thoughts into words. Most think that the viability of the verse in modern culture is a fairy tale at best._

_Ameny, the justified, by name  
A Nefertem Daughter and a Kebechet Son  
He will wear the white crown,  
He will take the red crown;  
He will join the Two Mighty Ones.  
Rejoice, O people of his time,  
The son of man will make his name for all eternity.  
Anubis will fall to his sword,  
Bastet will fall to his flame,  
Rebels to his wrath, traitors to his might,  
As the scales on his brow subdues the rebels for him.  
One will build the Wall of the Ruler._

_Given the nature of the descendants, it is highly unlikely that the prophecy will come to pass._

“Shit.”

Felicia slammed the textbook shut in disgust and lay her head against the steering wheel of her car, vainly hoping that if she couldn’t see it, the essay question would disappear. She had bombed the final so badly that she was either going to have to take it again or make up another history class before graduation. _The Impact of the Ennead in Modern Society_ ; it was supposed to be a “basket weaving” class, as her dad would say. Everyone knew who the Ennead were: the council of nine, ancient Egyptian gods who had prophesized most of the advancements of the modern world. If it hadn’t been for that unit on the Kebechet and Nefertem, she would have aced the course without even showing up to class, but here she sat, one credit shy of her scholarship requirement, on her way home for summer break with no idea how to tell her parents that they were going to have to shell out some serious cash if she was going to return to university in the fall.

Felicia tossed the textbook into the backseat and stared out the windshield.

One dim lamp cast shadows over an equally dim sign proclaiming the establishment to be Dave’s Place. Some forthright soul had taken the initiative to scratch a line through “Place” and substitute “ _Dive_ ”; there was no doubt in her mind, judging from the clientele drifting in and out, that the latter was a better fit. She wanted nothing more than to put her car into reverse and drive to the next approximation of civilization. As tempting as that was, she couldn’t just leave Jenna here.

Though she really, _really_ wanted to.

Unfortunately, her decision-making capabilities seemed to have been severely lacking in the past twenty-four hours, not to mention the entirety of last year. Her first mistake had been to drive home after finals instead of flying, followed shortly thereafter by agreeing to anything her roommate, Brandi, asked when Jägermeister was involved. Somehow her long, quiet drive home and a chance to clear her head had deteriorated into a cross country trip with Lindsey Lohan.

Or a reasonable facsimile, anyway. Brandi had promised that her cousin Jenna was a sweet girl who was going through a rough patch and just needed a ride home.

Yeah, right. That sweet girl had spent the entire first day in the car texting and talking on her cell phone; Felicia was pretty sure there had been some phone sex somewhere along the way. Admittedly, it had been a nice break from the concert of every pop song Jenna could find to sing along with. Loudly and ear-shreddingly badly.

She hadn’t even offered to drive.

Feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, Felicia sighed, locked the car doors, and headed into the bar.

The interior did not disappoint.

Felicia slid into the first empty seat she found , one ass cheek clinging to the bar stool in a passable imitation of sitting, after dumping the contents of her change purse onto a waitress’s tray. She rubbed the edge of her thumbnail against a generations-old drink stain, nursing a bottle of watered-down beer that she had some serious issues about putting her mouth against.

The bar was a dive. Its only claim to fame seemed to be the blind eye it turned to really shitty fake IDs.

Felicia gazed at the other tables and abruptly dropped her eyes again when a biker missing most of his teeth smiled at her. Trying to be subtle, she turned her attention back to the bar, searching for Jenna in the dim lighting and finding her falling out of her shirt over a guy at the table across the ten foot wide dance floor. If she didn’t think that she might need a roommate again next year, Felicia would have left the little skank on her own three pee breaks ago.

The people Jenna had decided to make friends with were…odd. They didn’t look abnormal or anything; they were actually quite attractive. There was just something…different about them. The one Jenna was talking to had hair just a touch too long to be fashionable, a stocky build and super-white teeth that glowed slightly, even all the way across the room. He had a cowboy hat pulled down low over his face and a hint of stubble. He was scruffy and not quite put together, fitting the Texan stereotype Felicia had in her mind exactly. The rest of the table could have passed for their mid twenties, although in this place, who knew how accurate appearances were. There were five of them altogether, two guys on the ends and three girls in the middle packed shoulder to shoulder in the u-shaped booth. They looked comfortable like that, which was maybe the thing tweaking Felicia’s subconscious. In her experience, people never sat that close together if they could help it, or if they did, someone was always trying to shift a bit, to get some personal space. Not these people, though; they reminded her of puppies, all piled up and perfectly content to be there.

The girl closest to Scruffy was passed out cold on the middle girl’s shoulder, and the other one was pretty blatantly hitting on the guy closest to Felicia. They were all sipping beer and appeared to be having fun, but the longer she watched, the more it became apparent that there was something … _off,_ almost like they were waiting for something.

Felicia looked back at Jenna, who was pulling down her shirt and comparing the tattoo on the guy’s wrist to the one on her chest. Felicia’s gaze flicked back to the others and she squinted, cursing the fact that the smoking ban hadn’t made its way this far south. Or maybe it had and it was just that no one cared; either way, the smoke made it hard to see, but it looked like the boy toy had the same tattoo as the other people at the table.

Easing off her seat, Felicia circled the dance floor and slid onto a stool at a table next to them, giving her a clearer view of everyone. The tattoo, common to all of them, was the scales of justice, which slammed a gang theory to the forefront of her mind. She looked more closely at the group; they were all similar, kind of eerily so. Same dark hair, same dark complexion. They even all seemed to be wearing the same black nail polish, men included. The girls were gorgeous: perfect skin that seemed to glow, long wavy dark hair, perfect bodies, and the same super-white teeth as the cowboy. Felicia fingered her red hair and sighed. She felt every missed shower and endless minute spent locked up in her car. She had a sense that even dragged behind a horse for ten miles, these girl would still be beautiful.

She definitely needed to get out of Texas if her analogies were starting to involve horses.

Something tickled the back of her brain, but damned if she wasn’t too road-stoned to grasp it. Running the edge of her beer bottle against her teeth, she contemplated the group as a whole. Before she could grab hold of the idea pushing its way to the more coherent part of her mind, the comatose girl woke up and all hell broke loose.

Felicia couldn’t hear what was being said over the music, but the previously unconscious girl was taking real offence at Jenna hitting on her boyfriend. At least, that was the impression Felicia had. She put her beer down and looked around, not really sure how to handle things, but before she could decide anything, the guy on the end of the booth stood up and wrapped the girlfriend up in his arms, pulling her aside.

Felicia stared dumbly. Holy shit, he was tall. He was just like the others at the table; same white teeth, dark hair, and perfect skin. He also wore a cowboy hat pulled down low, but it didn’t seem like they made hats big enough to hide the mass of shaggy hair peeking out from under the brim. From the brief glance she had gotten of his face before he turned his back to her, it looked like he could flip from a puppy to a sex machine in an instant. Not that she was spending much time looking at his face; Felicia was a little more distracted by how perfect his ass was in his jeans.

The girlfriend seemed to have calmed down, and Felicia rose to gather up Jenna and take off; being short had its advantages, enabling her to duck around the patrons easily. She reached Jenna in time to hear her start mouthing off about the girlfriend being a crack head who should expect her man to go elsewhere if she couldn’t stay awake, but she wasn’t close enough to do a damn thing when Shaggy dropped his arms and the crack head went psycho. If Felicia hadn’t seen it, she never would have believed it; she’d heard of drugs making the average person stronger, but she’d never seen one girl pick another up by the hair and lift her high enough off the ground that her feet scrambled for the floor.

Felicia craned her neck to see if anyone else had noticed. She was kind of at a loss; Felicia herself was not a fighter at the best of times, but realistically speaking, Jenna outweighed the girl holding her by a good thirty pounds and should have been able to fend for herself.

“Excuse me, darlin’.”

Felicia jumped when a smooth Texas accent shivered across the back of her neck. Spinning around and stepping to the side, she stared as two fucking stunning six-foot blonde men slid by her and approached the group. For a second, she considered stopping them; that was a hell of a lot of pretty to mess up in a bar fight, but then she noticed their clothes. They were both wearing black leather pants and red leather vests that showed off their rippling muscles. They made her think of her mom’s romance novels, but these guys beat the crap out of any Fabio fantasy she’d ever indulged in. If she thought that Shaggy had a nice ass, it was nothing compared to the one who had brushed by her.

Soon after Pretty and Prettier approached, the whole group began talking low enough to be inaudible to anyone outside of the circle. Felicia was surprised that there were no guns blazing—this was Texas, after all—and a bit disconcerted that she couldn’t hear; after all, she was less than a foot away. Apparently the others could hear just fine, though, because the crack head dropped Jenna and shoved her towards the red vests.

Felicia looked around at the complete lack of attention they were attracting and crept closer.

“You know you’re not supposed to be here,” Pretty said. He was taller than the other, but not by much. Deep brown eyes, sculpted cheek bones, and a bad boy complex a mile wide. Just Felicia’s type. Hers, and any girl’s who had a pulse and even a passing interest in the male gender, really.

“We were just leaving,” Shaggy, apparently the spokesman-leader-type, mumbled around the neck of his beer bottle. He didn’t sound happy about it, but he also didn’t seem to have any intention of arguing.

Scruffy gathered up his crack head girlfriend, and the quiet girl in the middle helped him steer her towards the exit. They didn’t make it as far as anyone would have liked.

“You might think about getting that one spayed, though.” Crack head tugged lightly on a piece of Jenna’s hair as she passed; a handful of extensions fell to the floor. “She sheds.”

Felicia absolutely did not laugh. If anything, she snorted. Quietly. To herself.

Slutty Barbie, the one who had been all over Shaggy earlier, tossed back her drink and sneered at the Pretties. “Let’s get out of here; between the smell of skank and pussy, I can’t breathe.” Head tossed back, she followed her friends.

Shaggy and Felicia sighed at the same time. She would have given just about anything to have that kind of confidence. Shaggy threw some bills on the abandoned table and rubbed at his left eye before clapping Prettier on the chest and grinning around a mouthful of teeth that, upon closer inspection, were not only shiny white but also slightly fanged.

“You have a good night now.”

Felicia stared at his hand wrapped tight around a leather-clad shoulder. Either this guy had the best manicurist in the world or his nails were actually the colour of dark wood. The nagging thought shoving insistently at her brain returned and Felicia took a step to the side as Shaggy brushed past her. She turned to watch him follow his friends.

What the fuck?

Her eyes stayed on him as he stopped just short of the exit and snagged Slutty Barbie’s arm; he kept rubbing at his eye, gesturing towards a hallway that lead to the bathrooms. Felicia’s gaze flicked towards the hall and she grimaced at the memory of what those bathrooms looked like; there was no hope in hell that she was letting her ass within twenty feet of that toilet.

Shaggy scooped up Slutty Barbie like she weighed nothing at all; Felicia was transfixed, watching Barbie jam her tongue so far down the guy’s throat that she was probably sucking on his tonsils. When he put her back down, Shaggy stared somewhere behind her with a small smirk on his mouth that she couldn’t even begin to decipher. Felicia looked back towards the Pretties. They both stood tall, arms crossed over their chests, and stared right back. Her head starting to feel like it was on a swivel as she looked back towards the exit. Shaggy held his hand up as if to say “five minutes” and rubbed his eye again. She was starting to feel a little bad for him; she knew exactly how it felt when a contact slid out of place, but her jaw dropped when he moved his hand: One of his eyes was normal, but the one he’d been rubbing was glowing. It reminded her of her dog’s eyes when she had gone camping as a kid and the firelight hit it just right.

Used to scare the crap out of her.

Pieces fit into place in her mind. Like dominos, all the things she’d seen fell together until the complete picture became clear. Scales of justice tattoos...reflective eyes…black nails…

“Mother fucker!”

She clapped her hand over her mouth and tried not to hyperventilate. She’d spent the last two days cramming from the textbook she’d neglected to read during the semester and it was all fresh in her mind; dry accountings of blood-filled battles screamed through her brain. Kebechet. The race spawned by the jackal god Anubis. There were so few left that no one ever really saw them, but apparently they were hiding out in Texas.

“Excuse me, honey.”

Felicia stumbled back as Prettier slid by her. She watched him head towards the bathroom after Shaggy. He really was sinfully good looking; he had the height of his partner, and blondish hair, but he was just…more. Broader in the shoulders, tighter in the ass, perfectly proportional features. Felicia sighed and shook her head. Model types would never look twice at her. She caught a close-up of his face as he moved past her; where the others were merely good looking, this one was…okay, pretty, but there was a layer underneath that declared “I will give you the night of your life and possibly kill you in the morning.” No one had the right to be that attractive. He was like the cougar she’d seen once stalking the woods by her apartment: beautiful, but ultimately too dangerous to approach. Whereas Pretty was a boy, Prettier was undoubtedly a man.

Felicia turned back in time to see Jenna heading out the door with Bad Boy Pretty, and when had it become necessary in her life to categorize the levels of prettiness a boy could fall into?

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” She just wanted to get out of here and put as many miles as possible between herself and Port Arthur, Texas.

Pieces clicked together faster and faster in her mind. After the last battle, too many millennia ago to count, the Kebechet had been defeated by the Nefertem and exiled to the Americas. When the European explorers had arrived, they’d discovered the Kebechet and the aboriginal people of the land living together in harmony. Or not, depending on which book a person read. Some said that the Kebechet had enslaved the people of the land; some said they had adapted and formed their own tribes. Either way, the result was the same: They were gathered up and confined to Ridges, not allowed to travel more than thirty miles beyond their homes or have any contact with other tribes. They were a pack society, ruthless warriors twice as strong as humans when they weren’t neutered by the existing laws of society and the Ennead. There were rumours, though, that they still sacrificed those people stupid enough to trespass on their land.

Her feet were taking her to the bathroom before she knew what she was doing. Shaggy was going to eat Prettier alive.

Her gait stuttered and Felicia smacked her hand against her forehead. What the hell was she doing? She glanced down the hall where they had disappeared behind a door she could only assume led to the men’s room. There was no way she would be able to help; truthfully, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Upon further reflection, maybe Prettier could hold his own.

Felicia did an about face and took off for the exit. They had to get out of this town.

Jenna was all over Bad Boy Pretty in front of the bar, trying to show off bruises Felicia was pretty sure she didn’t have.

Fed up, tired, and supremely scared, Felicia grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the exit. “We’re leaving. Now,” she barked in her best no-nonsense voice.

“Relax, Felicia, Justin was just telling me that there are better bars just outside the city. He’s offered to escort us personally.”

Felicia glared at the guy following them—Justin, apparently. “Jenna, you don’t understand who lives here, those…people— Just get in the car.”

Felicia trailed off as Shaggy left the bar, walking towards them and smiling at Felicia as he tipped his hat. “Ladies.”

She absolutely did not swoon. Dimples. Vicious killers did not have dimples. Felicia’s gaze strayed from the dimples to the guy’s full, warm-looking lips. Okay, for someone who could rip her heart to shreds, literally, he was fucking hot. His lips were a bit swollen like he’d just been making out; Slutty Barbie must have some skills if his mouth still looked like that five minutes later. Felicia found herself smiling back in spite of herself, watching him jump into the back of a pick-up truck she hadn’t even noticed idling by the curb. He banged a hand on the roof as it took off down the street, throwing his head back to emit a howl not to be emitted in human vocal cords. Felicia shivered.

Heart. Shredded.

Turning back to the problem at hand, she watched Prettier come out to join them. Her eyes narrowed at his swollen lips and the slight redness on his neck. She had seen the same pattern on her own neck when her ex hadn’t shaved in a few days. She looked back down the street where the truck’s taillights disappeared around the corner and shook her head.

Nah. This was Texas.

“Come on, Felicia. It’ll be fun.” Jenna leaned in and the alcohol on her breath made Felicia stagger a bit. “You can have the short one,” she stage-whispered loudly enough to wake the dead. Felicia looked over at Prettier.

Short?

She turned back to Jenna, ready to drag her out to the car if necessary. Justin grinned down at the top of Jenna’s head; it wasn’t a smile designed to bolster her confidence in the situation. Especially not when Felicia finally noticed the sharp incisors poking out from behind his upper lip. Her gaze flew back to Prettier. Without the dim lighting and smoke of the bar, she got her first good look at his eyes; they were green, but not the kind of green that came from coloured contacts. She could have brushed that off, except that his pupils were split, like a cat’s.

Felicia remembered the second half of her history lesson. When the Kebechet were exiled, the Nefertem, children of the cat goddess Bastet, had been sent to ensure that they followed the rules the Ennead had set. Her eyes strayed to the Eye of Udjat stitched into the red vest. The Nefertem made the Kebechet look like docile puppies.

“No, Jenna,” she said digging for her keys and backing up. “We need to leave. Now.”

Jenna slid her arm through the crook of Justin’s elbow and laid her head on his chest. “You get a room, I’ll see you tomorrow. “

Felicia couldn’t think of a thing to say as Jenna stumbled, giggling, down the street, her body stuck tight to the side of the Nefertem leading her away. If the Kebechet were virtually invisible, the Nefertem were front and center. They were, at heart, guardians. Every political figure worldwide had Nefertem guard detail and advisors. Every president, every royal figure, every despot, every one. Felicia remembered her father shaking his head at the television, ranting that the cats were taking over. There had been an assassination attempt on much-beloved president Kennedy and it had been a Nefertem who had stood in the way of the bullet; since then, it had been a sign of status to have the fierce warriors guarding you. In less than forty years, they were everywhere. There was talk at first, swiftly quieted, that they were becoming too entrenched in the world’s political future, but by the time anyone thought to really take a stand, it was too late. Their mother, the goddess Bastet, was the face of the century. While the Nefertem themselves looked similar enough to be more or less interchangeable, she stood above them all and commanded a nation. It was said that they had training compounds all over the world, although no one was really sure where, only that they were close to the Ridges that housed the Kebechet.

The world fell into two camps: those who believed the Nefertem were saviours, and those who believed that they were enslavers. Either way, everyone was afraid of them. And Felicia felt like the world’s biggest idiot for not recognizing the uniform.

“Good friend of yours?”

Felicia jumped as Prettier whispered in her ear. Okay, maybe not whispered; there was at least five feet between them, but damned if she didn’t feel that gravelly voice over every inch of her skin.

Damn good-looking psycho killers with their damn sexy voices.

She looked at the man, cat, person standing beside her. He looked so…calm. A wave of tranquility washed over her and it freaked the living shit right out of her. She knew, had read somewhere , that some Nefertem could influence others’ emotions, depending on their rank. She’d thought it was bullshit at the time, but now, standing here, awash in an emotion she had no hope of generating herself given the circumstances, she started to believe.

“I just met her a few days ago.” Felicia heard the words stutter out of her mouth without any inclination of how they’d come to be.

“Are you planning on staying here?”

Felicia stared at him. Something in his tone indicated that there was so much to that question that she just didn’t understand. “No. We just stopped for a drink. I’m going home.”

“Where is that?”

Closing her eyes, she felt the pull of his voice and dug her nails into her hand. The sting cleared her mind and shoved the false peace away. She opened her eyes, half expecting anger that she’d broken his spell, but he looked vaguely impressed. Hitching her purse higher on her shoulder, she glanced towards her car. “Far away from here.”

He leaned down and picked up her keys from where she had fumbled them to the ground without realizing it.

Pressing them into her hand, he gave her a little shove. “Good answer.”

Felicia stumbled a few steps across the parking lot and then turned to watch Prettier round the corner in the opposite direction, mentally congratulating herself on being strong enough to withstand his weird mind tricks. She had just outsmarted a freaking Nefertem. She was fucking amazing.

Backing her car out of the parking lot, she turned onto the highway. What the hell had possessed her to stop here, anyway?

_May your glass be ever full.  
May the roof over your head be always strong.  
And may you be in Heaven  
half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.  
_

–Irish Blessing

Jared stretched his arms above his head, the heels of his palms straining upward, his fingertips just brushing the bottom of a sign sweeping from one side of the road to the other. Bouncing up on his toes, he grabbed onto the bottom bar of the sign and hung there a moment. He was too low to read the words, but he knew what they said.

Predator Ridge. Est. 1828. Visitors report to gate.

“And kiss your ass goodbye,” Jared muttered under his breath as he dropped twenty feet to the ground.

There was nothing subtle about the middle finger he shot towards the few figures milling about the brightly lit gate house. Red- and black-clad guardians turned under the floodlights to watch as the truck rumbled by. Jared caught the glow of three sets of eyes moving back towards him and he grinned wide, his sharp teeth white in the moonlight. A few quick steps landed him in the truck bed; pounding on the roof, he urged Chris to go faster and braced his feet when his best friend complied.

Small clusters of houses flew by in a blur, the wheels of the truck kicking up dust as they drove down the dirt road. The two hundred or so houses were cookie cutter familiar; it wasn’t a foreign concept for someone to pass out in the wrong yard after a few too many. Viewed from above, the dwellings formed an Ankh: two arms to the sides, a long row down the middle, and a cul-de-sac loop at the top. There was no pavement, and no stores on the Ridge, other than a small gas station so that its residents could get the fuel they needed for the thirty minute drive into Port Arthur. One school sat in the middle of the cluster of houses designated to second-borns, and rising above them all, at the heart of the Ankh, was the Temple. The houses’ backyards all bordered the acres and acres of farm and ranch land that kept the Kebechet alive.

Jared threw his head back and opened his mouth, letting a deep howl burst from his throat and echo into the stars. Right now, with a light breeze on his skin, his lifelong best friends singing loudly from the confines of the truck, and a little bit too much beer in his system, he could admit that his life didn’t completely suck.

Not completely.

Jared rubbed at his wrist, scabs marking the weeks-old tattoo. It had taken some convincing, but he’d managed to con the others into getting the ink as a graduation gift to themselves. The ridges of the scales stood out in stark relief but effectively hid the puckered skin of the brand in the same shape; every Kebechet child was branded within their first year, a warning to the human population of what they were dealing with. It could have been worse; in the old days, the marks had been on their foreheads. As if it wasn’t obvious. If you didn’t survive the branding, you weren’t meant to.

Just once, he wanted to be able to hide in plain sight.

He smelled The Pits minutes before it came into view. Miles of empty space and sagebrush dotted the landscape with a bonfire smack in the middle. The truck went flying over a small hill; Jared held on as it spun a 180 and reversed towards the group of teens crowding around the fire.

He braced himself against the cab when Chris threw the truck into park and tumbled out of the cab with a beer already in his hand.

“Tailgates down, son!” Chris yelled. In another world, Chris would have been the epitome of a redneck cowboy. Unfortunately, he’d been born at the wrong place in the hierarchy.

Jared laughed and reached for the box of bottles at his feet, handing it off to Chris and sliding towards the back of the truck. He dropped the tailgate before taking a seat and swinging his feet down to the ground.

There were at least fifty bodies writhing to some techno crap he couldn’t name blaring from speakers set up in the backseats of ten cars all belonging to Kebechet kids. They ranged in age from fourteen to eighteen, the latter being the official age that it became “uncool” to attend parties at The Pit. In reality, that was a ridiculous lie people had told enough times to make it stick; by the time a Kebechet reached the age of nineteen, he had moved on to whatever role life and birth had in store for him. These parties were a reminder of a life they would never have again.

Holding his hand out for a beer, he raised a brow as Chris held it out of reach and nodded at Jared’s chest. It wasn’t like he couldn’t reach out and take it; his arm span was twice that of Chris’s, but given the number of times he’d ditched his friends lately, tonight was about making peace. Sighing, Jared tore his shirt off and tossed it into the truck bed. He rolled his shoulders and shoved the metal around his arm higher up his bicep. The malleable gold band had been in place almost as long as the brand on his wrist; it stretched as he grew, transforming over his life from a cuff into a coil around his upper arm. It was supposed to be a sign of health or some other shit; the farther away the edges were from each other, the more virile you were. His gaze fell to the matching band on Chris’s arm.

Second-borns.

Jared flinched at the feel of the cold bottle pressing against his palm. He rolled the bottle against his bottom lip and settled back to watch for a bit. About fifty percent of the kids were naked or wearing nothing but boxers. Someone had gotten in into their head that being nude leveled the playing field, making them all equal under the moon or some other stupid shit. Jared suspected it was more like way too much E. They weren’t werewolves, for Christ’s sake. Jared chose to keep some semblance of dignity and keep his jeans on. Besides, any guy looked stupid with his junk hanging out, nothing but boots on his feet in the hopes of avoiding lodging the glass of past generations’ parties in his toes.

His girls, on the other hand, never seemed to have a problem losing their layers for the sake of the party. He watched Sophia grind her hips between two of the younger first-born sons. She had lost her shirt somewhere along the way and a person would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice how beautiful she was in the firelight. Jared shook his head and picked at the edge of the label on his bottle, mentally cursing the fact that certain parts of his anatomy didn’t even twitch in response to the sight. His life was going to get a lot more difficult if he couldn’t muster up the slightest interest in the fairer sex. Squaring his shoulders, he raised his face to focus on Sophia.

He could blame it partially on familiarity. After all, he’d known her since birth. She’d been the ideal little sister, closer to him than his own; she’d tagged along everywhere he and Chris went. The last few years, though…something had changed. She’d spent more time with her head in a bottle than anywhere else. He’d tried to talk to Chris about it a few times but been shut down at every turn. Jared had eventually let it go; he had had his own shit to deal with, but watching her throw her head back, rolling with whatever she’d snorted up her pretty nose on the drive from the bar as her eyes glazed over, he wondered if maybe he shouldn’t have tried harder. Tipping his beer towards the trio, he elbowed Chris. “You gonna do something about that?”

Chris glanced over and growled low in his throat, taking off into the circle to protect his twin’s honour. Jared wondered how much honour was left there to protect. Sophia had been out of control ever since graduation. He couldn’t really blame her; as a third child, born mere seconds after Chris, her future was dismal at best. He laughed quietly as Chris bulldozed his way through a crowd of first sons and hauled his sister away.

His gaze flitting over the crowd, he checked on his other friends. Genevieve and Sandy were charming beers off some guys they had gone to high school with; he lifted his bottle in acknowledgement when he caught Genevieve’s eye. She smiled and ran her fingers over the chest of the poor boy she was flirting with. She’d be over in a few minutes with enough beer to keep all of them going for the rest of the night.

They only had another three months of this, at most. By the fall, they’d be presented at Temple and moved into their new homes. Like Sophia, Jared had been escaping the reality of his future, but in his own way. He’d been thumbing his nose at conformation the only way he could, one illicit dalliance at a time.

Jared didn’t know which was worse: the Joining, or the Harvest.

At least first-borns were relatively safe. His brother, Jeff, had moved out to the ranch last year and was good about visiting. He didn’t talk much about what went on out there, but it couldn’t be too bad spending his days working with the cows and horses. Back in the day, the first-borns had been soldiers, but after the rebellion in the eighteen fifties, it became illegal for the Kebechet to receive any kind of tactical training. Or weaponry. He was pretty sure it would be frowned upon if he picked up a rock. That was also when the Nefertem had shown up to police them, and when the Kebechet had been confined to the Ridges. Jared didn’t know how many Ridges there were in North America, but he imagined there were fewer than there had been in the past, if the dwindling population of his own pack was any indication.

Jared wasn’t stupid; anyone could guess that the Ennead and the US government didn’t want the Kebechet to assimilate. He couldn’t really blame them. The rebellion was just the tip of the iceberg. After their original defeat at the hands of the Nefertem army, the Kebechet had fled to the new world and taken over. It had been a few hundred more years before the Europeans had arrived and the Nefertem had been brought in to quell the Kebechet while the white man was busy persecuting the aboriginals. Once the dust had settled, the Nefertem and England had a stranglehold on the land which lasted far into the twenty first century.

Jared tipped his beer back and drank deep. A finger ran up the seam of his jeans, moving the full length of his inner thigh, and he slammed his palm down on the wandering digits without lowering his head. He knew who that hand belonged to. Twisting his wrist to grasp slender fingers, he tugged and pulled Genevieve flush between his legs. Holding the beer in his mouth, he dropped his lips to hers and let the liquid flow between them; her arms wound around his neck, her fingers burying in his hair, and he lifted her into his lap. Setting his beer aside, he palmed her ass and tangled their tongues in her mouth. It would be so much easier if he had never known what it was like to—

Genevieve sat back and grinned at him before his mind could travel further down a worn road. “I got a case of beer and what may or may not be some really good weed.”

Jared laughed and ran his finger down her nose. “You’re taking advantage of those poor boys.”

“Oh please, they can barely stand up after their ‘Mitz.’” She shifted in his lap to wrap her legs around his waist. She was beautiful in the same way all the Kebechet women were: petite, dark, and sultry with deep brown eyes and a hint of mischief in every expression. It was too bad his tastes had lately been running in the direction of blondes.

Jared eyed the boys who were looking forlorn as they realized their stash had been stolen. “All the more reason for you to leave them alone.”

He felt the shrug of her shoulder and the hint of her tongue along his throat, dismissing his reprimand. “Gen…”

With a huff, she sat back. The closer it came to their Joining, the more blatant her advances became. “All right fine, but I’m not giving it all back.” He watched her saunter back across the field and reached out an arm to slide around Sandy, who had joined him on the tailgate. “You’re supposed to stop her.”

Sandy shrugged and snuggled under his arm. “She’s your wife.” Jared stiffened and immediately forced his shoulders to relax. Genevieve was his wife; she had been since they were two years old. It wouldn’t be official until the Joining, but it was as good as done.

“Fucking breeders.”

Jared glared at the two boys as they stumbled by with half of their stash back, their sneering tones making the first-borns’ contorted faces appear older than they were. See if he tried to help any of the little shits again. Genevieve growled at them and hopped onto the tailgate, sliding her fingers through Jared’s and tipping a beer back.

Jared shook his head; it wasn’t his fault he’d been born second. No one liked the level they had been born to. Second-borns had one purpose and one purpose only: to ensure the survival of the species. They were to have three children. No more, no less. If, for any reason, they could not perform that duty, they were removed from the pack and sent to Harvest. After the children were born, usually all three within three years, the parents worked the farms, moving permanently to the farm houses when the last had turned eighteen to make way for the next generation.

The third-borns probably had more cause to complain than anyone; at least Jared knew what his future held. After the harvest, when Bastet saw fit to grace then with her presence, the third-borns disappeared, and that was usually the last anyone heard of them. Sophia had less than three months. Jared’s sister had a year.

The Kebechet, as a people, were not fond of September in the slightest. First-borns didn’t get away scot-free either; they were subject to a ‘Mitz,’ a variation on the Jewish Bar Mitzvah which shared nothing beyond the name. On their thirteenth birthday, first-borns were sterilized, supposedly to lower their levels of testosterone, but Jared was pretty sure it had more to do with maintaining the population. He’d always thought that wasn’t really fair to the female first-borns.

He also didn’t really think it worked; at least, not if his brother Jeff was any indication. The guy had been trying to prove what a man he was ever since their dad had died. He was constantly in Jared’s face about falling in line and doing his duty to the pack.

Speaking of, Jared stood and squinted through the crowd, finding a few guys standing off at the edge of the firelight. He shooed the girls away as his brother broke away from his friends and approached. They used to be close, when they were little, but when Jared hit puberty and grew taller than Jeff, and pretty much everyone else in the tribe, his brother had pulled away. As it was in most aspects of society, physical distinction was frowned upon.

“Hey, little brother.”

Jared’s spine straightened automatically as his brother emerged from the crowd. As usual, his brother had a friendly tilt to his lips, but his eyes reflected a disappointment in him that Jared had known for the better part of five years.

“Hey, Jeff.”

His brother leaned against the truck and fished through the box of beer Genevieve had left. “I heard you were scaring the locals tonight.”

Jared sighed and slumped back against the truck. He swore the whole Ridge was run by gossip queens. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

Jeff’s gaze was sharp and assessing in a way that left Jared feeling entirely lacking. “Yeah, it’s never your fault, right?”

Jared sighed and picked at the label on his beer, not meeting his brother’s eyes. He felt Jeff’s harsh breath across his face. “Jared, you’re eighteen; it’s time to grow the fuck up. You have responsibilities.”

Jared abandoned the label to dig his nails into his palm.

Jeff’s hand landed on his shoulder. “I’m just saying, you don’t want that kind of attention. Our family doesn’t need that kind of attention.”

Jared sighed. Their momma hadn’t been doing too well. With Jeff gone, Jared to be Joined, and his baby sister gone in a year, his momma had been regressing further into herself. It had started five years before, when their dad had died of a heart attack, a previously unknown ailment to his people. She had never recovered really from that blow, and at this point, she didn’t need the added stress of one of her children screwing up his life. He may be an ass about it sometimes, but Jeff had nothing but his family’s best interests at heart. It enabled Jared to cut him a little slack. “Yeah, okay.”

Jeff visibly relaxed and slapped him on the back, glancing back around the fire. “So…Gen’s been looking pretty good lately.”

Jared nodded and sipped his beer. It wasn’t that he didn’t find Gen attractive; it was just the inevitability of it all. He didn’t get to choose who he would spend the rest of his life with, and that…sucked. “Yup.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Don’t be a dick. You could do worse.”

Any good feelings he’d been harbouring for his brother evaporated. “Yeah, well, remind me of that when your sex life gets planned out for you.” The first born got to be the bad ass, the second got to be the whore.

“At least you’re allowed to have a sex life.”

Jared sighed. Point.

He caught Gen’s eye across the fire and smiled. Jeff snorted and slapped him on the back again. “Don’t be out late tonight; you have to help Momma tomorrow.”

Jared groaned. Since Jeff had moved out, it had become his job to help their momma at the farmer’s market, which meant he had to be awake and semi-functional at ass o’clock in the morning.

“I thought it was your turn?” Lately, Jeff had shown up a few times a month to take her, and Jared had begun taking it for granted.

“It’s your turn and I’m busy,” Jeff tossed over his shoulder, walking back towards his friends.

“Where are you going?”

“To separate the men from the boys!” he yelled with a fist pump.

Jared rolled his eyes. They’d probably found a strip club that would let them in.

Jared shoved off the truck and checked his watch. His planned hours of drunken debauchery had just been cut in half. With a quick text and a glance around to make sure he wouldn’t be missed, he slipped off into the dark. Ten minutes later, he’d reached the highway bordering the Ridge and slid into the passenger seat of the car waiting there for him.

…  
…

Jared tipped his chin towards the ceiling. His vision swam as he concentrated on his fingers wrapped tightly around the headboard. Drops of sweat rolled off his stomach muscles and slid down his sides only to become trapped between the small of his back and the mattress below. He arched his spine and tightened his grip, every muscle tensing and releasing as waves of pure satisfaction rolled across his skin. His thighs spread impossibly wider to accommodate the hips rolling against his and he bit down hard on his bottom lip, desperate for the end and dreading it at the same time.

“Fuck. Faster.”

His voice came out a cross between a whine and a moan and had absolutely no effect on his partner. It never did. Releasing his hold, he dropped one fist to speed up the inevitable. Strong fingers slammed his hand back down and the increased snap of relentless hips against his threw him past the finish line.

Moments later, his breath still coming in short bursts, he flinched at the familiar click of a lighter.

This, right here, this feeling, with this man, was his problem. The reason he resented every single thing he’d been raised to believe in.

Jensen.

He’d somehow managed to become of an integral part of Jared’s day-to-day for four years now. And Jared still wasn’t entirely sure how that had happened.

It was not common for the Kebechet to attend human high schools. For reasons his mother had yet to reveal, she’d insisted on his being part of the first generation ever to go. Just a few months past his fourteenth birthday, he had found himself on a bus built for thirty with his five best friends for the first of many hour-long commutes to Port Arthur to matriculate with the humans.

Some parts of him still wished that he’d never set foot off the Ridge. Sometimes it was easier to not know what you were missing.

To say that it had been a culture shock was putting it mildly. He had been thrust together with his fellow students and their designer clothes and cell phones, their parties and social networks. Until that point, his race’s isolation had been an abstract concept. The social hierarchy of his high school classmates had effectively forced it upon him.

They had all been required to wear Blenders, contacts that hid the reflective nature of their eyes, and caps on their teeth to hide their fangs. Some higher power seemed to think that the more human they looked, the easier it would be for them to assimilate. Those higher powers had obviously never attended high school themselves.

If every person who passed through the front door hadn’t known who they were to begin with, the presence of their very own guard detail stationed within two feet at all times might have been a hint. Nothing said “I’m just your average high school student” like three tall blondes standing behind you in the cafeteria with their arms crossed and their best “fuck off” stares in place.

The Nefertem were there, in theory, to protect the human population. A little insurance for the PTA. It had only taken Jared six months to discover the truth.

The other students had mostly left them alone. They were all in the same building, but the most they interacted was when they brushed up against each other in the hall. The Kebechet were not allowed to play sports, citing an unfair advantage, or to participate in school activities, because heaven forbid they should decide to raise a coup and take over the bake sale; next step, world domination. Even their classes were sequestered. Though that was not official, the fact remained that they sat in the back and no one ever talked to them.

Except for the popular kids.

They talked to the Kebechet all the time.

It hadn’t been long before other kids’ feet had begun tangling in Jared’s, making him spill face first in the hall. Food was thrown at him in the cafeteria and his clothes almost always went missing during gym class. It wasn’t just him; Chris had been dumped into garbage cans and stuffed into lockers. It was harder on the girls, though. He’d personally witnessed them all being surreptitiously groped by the football team, resulting in relentless harassment from the cheerleaders. Mean Girls had nothing on those bitches.

And there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.

If they had so much as grazed a hair on the homecoming queen’s head, they would have been on their knees in Temple, answering to the priests before they could blink. High school sucked, but the level of punishment an Egyptian priest could dole out was only slightly more pleasant than the first level of Hell.

About six months in, Jared was ready for whatever punishment was thrown his way. It wasn’t even for himself. Sophia had come home with bruises from being cornered in a stairwell and manhandled before anyone could get her out of there. She’d never said who had done it, but they all knew. Things had been different then; they’d been younger and relied too much on each other for protection, still adhering to the tribe’s unwritten policy to protect your own. Chris had been livid and it had taken everything Jared had to stop him from going after the entire football team. They’d vowed to keep a better watch on the girls and he’d been the one there when the boys went after Genevieve. Things had been different between them then, too. He’d stood proud, ready to defend his wife. All of his bravado hadn’t counted for much, however, when all he could do was throw himself between them and Genevieve and they realized he wasn’t going to fight back. He could still remember in excruciating detail what his rib had sounded like as it snapped and pierced his lung.

The events after that were still a bit fuzzy in his memory. He blamed the blood loss.

He remembered the look on those boys’ faces as they were held against the walls by their throats. He remembered the quiet scrape of Jensen’s nail sliding down one guy’s face and slicing it open. He remembered the low growl, the first time he had heard Jensen’s voice, spitting out venomous syllables.

“They can’t touch you. We can.”

That, he would never forget.

He had always assumed that the Nefertem were bound by the same rules when it came to humans. He had been very wrong.

Things had changed after that day. Other details came and went, but Jensen was a constant in his high school career. It had been another month before Jared had actually talked to him, and even then, it hadn’t been a conscious choice. He’d been struggling with a test he hadn’t studied for, couldn’t even remember reading about. Some days, he was sure the teachers had given them different textbooks. Jared had been staring for five minutes at the multiple choice questions without the slightest clue of what the answers were when he became aware of a tapping. At first, he had been ready to punch Jensen in the face for distracting him, but then he had realized that there was a rhythm to the tapping. Three taps, pause, three taps, pause. Jared had glanced up at his guardian’s implacable face, back at the test, and circled the third answer. Two taps, pause, two taps, pause.

After class, he’d been shocked when the stoic Nefertem offered him a wink.

Jared couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when he decided to befriend Jensen. He was never quite sure why he did it; maybe he wanted to solve a mystery, find out if there was an actual personality under the leather. Hell, maybe he just needed the guy to crack a smile. The next day, he had quietly slipped into his seat after sliding a chocolate bar into Jensen’s hands clasped tightly behind his back. Two classes later, he had opened his book to find an empty wrapper with the word “thanks” scrawled across it.

They had developed a system after that. Gummy bears appeared in pockets, notes scrawled on gum wrappers in text books; nothing indicative of the man, but stupid bits of info like “the new sub picks his nose.” There was no actual conversation, but Jared figured he was paying a debt to the guy for saving his ass on more than one occasion.

Then summer came and there was no excuse left to try to get the Nefertem to crack a smile. Jared missed the interaction.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one.

A few weeks into his summer vacation, a severe heat wave had swept through Texas; he’d been restless, unable to sleep, and gone for a walk. The bluffs had been his “thinking place” for as long as he could remember, and that night, he’d stared at the stars and thought about everything that had changed in the last year, including the death of his father. He had been so involved in his own mind that he hadn’t even realized he was not alone until a twig snapped on the ground.

He never questioned how Jensen had found him; it had never seemed important. That was the first real conversation they had ever had; it was a fairly insignificant one, mostly about constellations and the heat wave. But when he left, Jared found a bag of gummy bears in the place Jensen had been.

It wasn’t long before Jared was sneaking out nightly, spending his summer eves on that bluff talking about everything that crossed their minds. To a fourteen-year-old boy, Jensen, at eighteen, was the epitome of cool. Those nights not only solidified their friendship but marked the first time Jared began to conceive of a life away from the scrutiny of his family and his tribe.

It wasn’t until the night of his sixteenth birthday that things changed again. Jensen had kissed him that night, and as far as first kisses went, it hadn’t been great. Jared had been bitching incessantly about leaving the Ridge, as he had always done in those days, and Jensen had shut him up with his tongue. After a few more weeks, they had mastered that particular skill, but it would be close to a year before they went further. It was almost as if Jensen doled out progress in their relationship according to a time table that Jared wasn’t privy too. Whatever the reason, Jared was hooked and his dreams of leaving the Ridge took a back seat to his quest to spend as much time with Jensen as possible.

For four years, his world had revolved around school and stolen moments with Jensen.

Now everything was changing yet again, and he felt the desperation pouring off both of them. In a few months, he would be heading off into the sunset with Genevieve at his side, and as much as he hated the idea, he knew that it was time for Jensen to move on, too. Jensen had already been in Port Arthur longer than expected; at twenty two, he should have moved to his permanent detail two years ago.

Rolling to his side, Jared ran his fingers over the line of Jensen’s hip. “Am I losing my touch?”

Jensen snorted smoke out of his nose and flicked his fingertips at Jared’s nipple. Jared took it to mean “Of course not, you’re a sex god.”

“Then what’s going on?”

Jensen sighed and rubbed his thumb against his eyebrow, Jensen speak for “none of your business.” The majority of their conversations relied on Jared’s liberal interpretations of what Jensen could say with a gesture. Jared lifted himself up enough to check the clock; assured that they had another hour in the room, he leaned in to lick the cooling mess on Jensen’s stomach. He could appreciate the lack of conversation; he was usually the one running his mouth while Jensen sat quietly and let him go wherever his feverish brain led. It was surprising when Jensen actually answered him.

“I have to get going soon.”

Jared paused and swallowed. “We have another hour.”

“We had another hour, but thanks to your barhopping earlier, I have to get back to town.”

Jared sat up. He’d been really kind of hoping that wasn’t going to come up. “You’re turning us in?”

“Don’t be stupid. That girl you guys were screwing with, I have to—” Jensen cut himself off and impatiently stubbed out his cigarette. “I have to go back to town.”

“We didn’t hurt her. Did she go to the cops?” Jared whined.

Jensen stood up and started pulling his boxers up over his hips. “No. She’s fine, she went with Justin and I told him I’d give her a ride later.”

Jared flinched. He really didn’t like Justin. Something about the guy just creeped him out. He didn’t have it as bad as Sophia, though; she hated the guy.

Jared leaned over the edge of the bed and snagged his fingers in the waist of Jensen’s shorts, tugging down. “Can’t Justin drive his own skanks home?”

“Jared…”

“What?” he asked, innocence dripping from his lips.

Jensen sighed and sat back on the bed, running his fingers up the side of Jared’s thigh. “Have you thought any more about what we talked about?”

“The scholarships?”

At his nod, Jared huffed out a breath and flopped down onto his back. “That’s so beyond the realm of possibility.”

“What are you staying for? Your mom has your brother to help her. Or is it something else? You looking forward to settling down with the little missus, popping out your three kids? I saw you at the bar, you seemed pretty familiar with her tongue in your throat.”

Jared dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, bitterly cursing his irrational need to make Jensen jealous. “You know that’s not—”

“Then what, Jared? What’s really keeping you here?”

“What the fuck crawled up your ass today? You know I can’t just leave. I wouldn’t make it five miles before you guys hauled my ass back.” Jared was so sick of this conversation. It had been months of Jensen subtly and then not so subtly shoving Jared towards a cliff that Jensen seemed quite happy to push him all the way off of.

Jensen snorted. “Us guys, huh? You don’t seem to have a real problem with me when—”

Jared waved his hands in front of Jensen’s face, impatiently cutting him off. “You know that’s not what I meant. Jensen. Come on. There’s a better chance of the…I don’t know…the Ameny showing up than a Kebechet getting a higher education. Besides, say I do go, then what? I’d never see my tribe again, and I’d sure as shit never see you again.”

“This isn’t about me. Us. We have an expiration date that’s coming up. Nothing that happens now is gonna change that. I just don’t want to have to watch—”

“Watch what? Me and Gen? It’s only for a few years, and then we can…” Jared’s throat hurt from all the words he was choking on.

Jensen arched an eyebrow as acid rolled off his tongue. “Do you really believe that? That you can go and fuck your wife a few times and then start back up with me like nothing happened? And then what? We live out some fucked up _Brokeback Mountain_?”

“You know what, fuck you, Jensen. Maybe we should just finish this now if it’s so fucking inevitable.”

Jared fought the urge to scoot backwards, away from the sparks flying from Jensen’s eyes.

“You think you can do that? Just sweep this under the carpet like it never mattered.”

He didn’t understand Jensen some days. One minute, there was no one in the world who’d ever made him feel so important, so much a part of something bigger than himself, and the next, he couldn’t decide whether Jensen was going to snap his neck when his back was turned.

It probably wasn’t the healthiest relationship in the world.

Jared lifted his chin, bravado he came nowhere close to feeling as he delivered his last resort. “I can walk away from anything, or anyone, if I have to.”

Jensen shook his head and Jared felt every second of the four years separating them. “Yeah? Just keep telling yourself that.”

Jared lifted the box overflowing with lettuce off the back of his momma’s truck. Hefting it onto a hip, he shoved his hat off his brow and swiped half-heartedly at the sweat starting to gather.

“Where does this go?”

His mother waved a hand, ignoring him to talk to her first customer of the day.

Jared dropped it to the ground and toed it under the folding table set up under their tent. Ignoring his mother’s glare, he turned back to the truck for the next box.

It wasn’t that he hated helping his momma; he knew the cash they made every weekend at the market was going to keep them going through the winter. He just hated being stared at by tourists and locals alike. They hadn’t even finished setting up and he’d already heard a group of seven-year-old girls giggling and sneering. His sister swung her legs off the tailgate, staring with undisguised envy at their outfits that definitely didn’t come from Wal-Mart like hers did. Jared poked her in the knee and offered a smile. Megan just shrugged and dropped her gaze to her hands, picking at the bright pink nail polish she wore to hide the dark brown of her nails. Jared looked back at the girls and curled his lip up, giving them a good view of his lengthened incisors. Satisfied when they took off like a shot, he grabbed another box and turned, running smack into his momma’s displeased expression.

Jared hunched his shoulders and put the next box of produce down much more gently than the first.

“Is this organic?”

Jared looked up at the forty-something woman weighing a tomato in her hand. He sighed. “It’s farm grown, ma’am.”

“I can see that from the sign, but is it organic?”

Jared took in the yoga pants, crocs, stylishly messy ponytail, full make up at nine am on a Sunday morning, and, of course, Blackberry. “Yes, ma’am, one hundred percent.”

“Good morning, Mr. Padalecki.”

Jared’s molars ground together, but he relaxed his jaw enough to smile at the principal of his former high school. “Good morning, Mr. Burrows, how are you?”

“I’m well, thank you. See, Sylvia, I told you these boys learned manners during their tenure with me.”

Jared nodded to the principal’s wife.

“I see you’ve been keeping busy since graduation. It’s always good to have a trade.”

Jared’s hackles rose and his mouth opened to deliver a truly scathing remark when he felt his mother’s hand on his wrist. “My son doesn’t need a trade; he’s plenty smart enough for a degree, Mr. Burrows.”

“I didn’t mean to imply.”

Jared stepped back from the table as all five feet of his mother were unleashed on Mr. Burrows.

“Yes, you did, but that don’t make no never mind. My Jared was smart enough to go to your high school, even though you didn’t want him, and he’s smart enough to go to your college, too.”

“Momma—”

“You hush; I made damn sure they let you into their fancy school, and I’ll make sure you go to college, too.”

Jared took a reluctant step back. It wasn’t that he disagreed with his momma; it was just mortifying for her to be the one standing up for him. “Yes ma’am.”

Mr. Burrows had allocated the Kebechet to remedial classes until it became apparent that their intelligence ranked in the top two percentile. Jared had Mr. Morgan—part time librarian, full time liaison for the Kebechet—to thank for that. Jared had spent most of his four years, when he wasn’t with Jensen, hidden in Mr. Morgan’s office reading everything he could get his hands on, and graduated close to the top of his class. What Jensen hadn’t given him, school had: dreams of a future that was never going to be. He wanted to go to University so bad he could taste it; he wanted to travel and not care how many miles he’d toed across the line, and he wanted to wear a goddamn tie and get coffee on his way to the office, not pick weeds and discuss fertilizer.

Jared kicked a chunk of manure off his boot and headed back to the truck. His momma would get him into college if he wanted to go. But the college was also in Port Arthur, which just shoved home the fact that Jared wasn’t going anywhere.

“Well, son, I gotta say it’s a good day when your momma tells off old man Burrows. So why do you look like someone pissed in your cornflakes?”

Jared afforded Chris the absolute minimum required smile and a shrug.

“Are you still whiny about the school thing?” Chris asked and Jared was surprised that sarcasm came with so many nuances.

He may have applied to the top schools in the country. Just to see. He’d been accepted to three with full scholarships. But going to the local high school was one thing, and moving across the country was another entirely; it wasn’t in the cards and never would be. Itching to change the subject, Jared nodded at Chris’s clean jeans. “Not working today.”

Chris shrugged and grabbed one of the boxes out of the truck, which Jared took to mean one of two things: Either his parents were too drunk to work, or they’d beat the crap out of each other again. Either way, they wouldn’t be making it to market this week. They were a cautionary tale of the importance of compatibility when it came to a Joining.

“You need a place to stay tonight?”

That Chris looked surprised by the offer was a testament to how much time they had not spent together lately. “Nah, I’m good. What are we doing tonight?”

Jared looked at the sky. Clouds were coming in. “White Crown?”

There were only two choices for the level of drunkenness Jared wanted to engage in, and given how quickly they’d been ousted from the bar in the city, it was either The White Crown or The Pits. As liaison, Morgan was required to have an office that the Kebechet could go to for support, so he’d built a bar, The White Crown, just off the Ridge. Morgan was pretty awesome.

“You know it, son.” Chris gave a little fist pump and three women scattered away from the booth.

Jared glared after them. “Yeah, okay. I got something to do first, pick me up at eight?” Jeff wanted to have dinner with them and Momma was making a big deal about it.

A flash of red caught his eye and he peered between the crowds and rows of vendors. Four Nefertem were wandering the aisles. One of them was Jensen. Of course.

“It’s a fucking famers market. What do they think we’re going to do?” Chris sounded like he was itching for a fight and Jared fought the urge to snort in his face. While any human would get their asses handed to them if a Kebechet truly fought back, there would be nothing left but a skid mark if Chris tried to tangle with the Nefertem.

Jared pulled his hat down lower on his forehead and crossed his arms over his chest. The red clothes indicated that the Nefertem were here in an official capacity. “They’re just doing their jobs.” He could see Chris’s point, though; having the Nefertem at the market was tantamount to having his mom come to school with him. Jared didn’t know why he was defending them.

Okay, he did, but he didn’t have to be happy about it.

His and Jensen’s fight had lasted well past the paid time they had in the room and spilled into the car and then onto the side of the road a few miles short of the Ridge. Jared had spent those last miles on foot, walking home, and he still couldn’t say who had won.

“Yeah, I guess.” Chris dusted his hands off on his jeans and turned towards the parking lot, resignation lining his shoulders. “Anyway, wine, women, and song. I’ll see you later.”

Jared nodded at Chris’s receding back and grinned when Genevieve hip-checked the organic-obsessed lady away from another booth. He spent the rest of day flirting with Gen, and if his eyes strayed more often than not to where Jensen seemed to be doing his job a little too well by staring daggers at Jared, well, that was no one’s business but his own.

...  
...

Jared rolled his shoulders and his canines glinted in the light from the parking lot. The White Crown was situated just outside the Ridge about a twenty minute drive from the city, a neutral zone. Which meant no Blenders. Jared’s last pair of contacts had “accidently” fallen down the sink earlier and he was hoping it would be a while before his momma could afford a new pair; they irritated his eyes something awful.

Chris threw his head back and howled as he slammed through the saloon doors protecting The White Crown from the outside world.

The bar was packed already. Jared saluted the man himself; every time he’d ever been there, Morgan had been glued to his barstool with his dog at his feet. In some ways, the crappy joint was more of a home to him than his own momma’s house. At least two thirds of the patrons were underage, but no one cared. He would be hard pressed to find a police officer willing to set even one toe in the place.

Heading for the bar, Jared had to turn around. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Justin making a beeline across the room towards Chris and Sophia. Never a good thing.

Justin’s voice resonated at him, the background noise doing nothing to cover his jeer. “Well if it isn’t the bitch in heat.” Jared made his way back just in time to hear Sophia retort: “I’d rather be a bitch than pussy-whipped by your queen cunt.” Jared was seriously going to have to talk to Chris about muzzling Sophia. Moving to block any punches that might be swung, he tensed for impact when Justin smirked at Chris.

“You better put a leash on your sister.”

Jared saw other Kebechet and Nefertem heading for the trio. Not that this was about defending anyone’s honour; any excuse for a fight was going to be taken and ridden with. Everyone in the bar was similarly dressed in jeans and t-shirts, the lack of leather meaning that punches were free. Jared watched Chris roll his shoulders and flinched when his neck cracked in time with his knuckles. This was not going to be pretty.

“Hey now.” Morgan elbowed Jared out of the way and slapped his hands down on Chris’s and Justin’s shoulders. “If you can’t play nice, you can leave.”

Both boys instantly bowed their heads in submission. No one fucked with Morgan, though it had never been clear to Jared why.

Jared pulled Chris away and caught Jensen’s eye as he took Justin in the other direction. Yeah, he’d noticed Jensen the second he’d walked in the bar and studiously ignored him. Even so, his fingers itched for his phone. Jared was pretty sure that, despite the half-assed conciliatory message he’d left on Jensen’s cell, Jensen was going to be pissed about the way Jared had spent most of his day eye-fucking Genevieve and ignoring him. Jared smoothed his fingers down the leg of his jeans and ignored the phone burning a hole in his pocket. The ball was in Jensen’s court and Jared was not going to follow him around like a puppy begging for scraps.

This time.

Instead , he found a booth and sat back to watch Gen and Sandy grind against each other like strippers on the dance floor. Dammit, he should be all over that. Not worrying about a certain tall blonde catlike person who could make him feel like there was no one else in the world. The girls were hot, but all but no one could give a lap dance like a Nefertem; it was ingrained in their cat genetics to be sexy and limber and—maybe he needed more to drink.

“You know, you’re awfully tall for a mutt.”

Jared stared at the blonde girl who had paused at their table. Adrianne, his mind coughed up. She and Justin were usually on the same shift with Jensen, though he’d never really heard her speak before. The Nefertem seemed to fall into two categories: the ones who saw the Kebechet as equals, and the ones who did not. Adrianne was unequivocally one of the latter.

Jared shrugged the comment off. He knew he was unusual for a Kebechet. He was the only one who had ever grown over six feet; most men topped out around five seven. Jared tipped back his rapidly dwindling drink; so he was a genetic freak, on top of everything else.

Adrianne leaned over and ran her fingertip over the rim of his glass when he set it down, prompting Jared to snatch it back up and cradle it to his chest.

“Run along, kitty cat.” Jared grinned at Misha, who had appeared at the table and was making little shooing motions with his fingers to match his sardonic tone.

The guy was a touch on the insane side, but he never failed to keep Jared entertained with his stories of “the great beyond.” Misha was a first born and, as such, got to travel to buy and deliver cattle and horses.

Adrianne rolled her eyes and left the table. Jared ignored her in favour of lifting Misha clear off the floor and pulling him into a bear hug. “How’s the real world, man? I haven’t seen you in months.”

Misha slid into the booth and started picking through the abandoned drinks, looking for the fullest one. “Still spinning, last I checked.”

Jared nodded , momentarily distracted watching Adrianne when she pulled a smaller blonde onto the dance floor and started trying to one-up his girls with their moves. It was starting to look like a strip off, and it still wasn’t doing anything for him.

He needed another drink.

Stretching out in his seat, he regarded Misha over the rim of his glass. “Are you coming in or going out?”

Misha stared off into the distance for a moment at who the hell knows what before answering. “I go where the road takes me,” he said, complete with a little swooshing motion of his hand.

“Well that was cryptic.” Jared snorted. “I’d take the road leading as far away as possible.”

Misha folded his fingers under his chin and assessed Jared contemplatively. “Still perturbed about your lot in life, I see.”

Before he could answer, the wide saloon doors swung open again and Jared swore under his breath as his brother came through. At dinner, Jeff had asked him to stay home and watch Megan and their momma. Well, ordered more than asked. Which was stupid, because Momma could take care of herself and he’d never had to watch them before. Really, what could possibly happen? He wasn’t sure what had been said before he’d come home for dinner, but the affair had been tense, like everyone knew something he didn’t. Jared spent more than enough time in the “need to know” world with Jensen; he didn’t need that shit at home, too.

“I think Morgan’s trying to get your attention.”

Jared focused back on Misha, even while he was contemplating how much of himself would fit under the table. “What?”

Misha nodded towards the bar. Sure enough, Morgan was waving him over. As luck would have it, that took him away from Jeff, so, in the right direction.

Jared ducked through the crowd and followed Morgan into a back hallway that led to the apartments taking up the upper floor of the building. Pointing up the stairs, Morgan dragged Jared in front of him and waved him on. Confused, Jared glanced up the staircase to find Jensen waiting at the top.

He turned and looked at Morgan, his raised eyebrows, a silent “What the fuck?”

Morgan grinned wide; it was strange enough in itself to see the normally gruff man looking so damn pleased with himself, but then he flashed a peace sign. Jared had the unnerving feeling that something major had changed in his world, but no one seemed to be letting him on what it was. Unfortunately, now was not the time; never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jared mounted the steps and didn’t look back when he heard the door separating the hallway from the bar slam shut.

Jared stopped on the top stair and waited to see what would happen next. Jensen pulled him up to the landing and closed the door, flipping the lock behind him.

“So…we have at least five hours before I have to be somewhere.” Jensen was doing the eyebrow rubbing thing again but instead of his usual contemplative stance, he looked like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

It was kind of adorable. Jared could take this as a peace offering, or he could make it into a fight.

“I thought you were pissed at me.” That was safely neutral, right?

“I was, but then I remembered something.”

Jared grinned, dimples in full display. He knew what worked for him. “How awesome I am?”

Jensen shook his head, amused, and put his palm over Jared’s heart. “Close enough.”

Jared looked down at his chest. The hand thing had been happening more often lately. Jensen was shit at actually articulating his emotions, so Jared wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, but he had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t anything good. Between his family acting weird and now Morgan facilitating his booty calls, there would be lots to worry about in the morning. For now, though, he just wanted this tiny little bit of happiness before it was gone, too.

Sliding his palm over Jensen’s hip, he pulled them half a step further into each other’s space. “Okay. Can we not talk anymore?”

Jensen smiled and leaned closer, his lips brushing Jared’s. “Yeah. Sharing and caring, highly overrated.”

…  
…

Jared woke up with a pounding headache in a bed that was not his own.

He vaguely remembered Jensen suggesting shots and then a blow job—not the alcoholic kind—but things got fuzzy after that. He glanced at the clock and took a minute to register that it was almost nine. He was a dead man if he missed Temple.

He stumbled downstairs. It was surreal to see the bar empty and quiet, and a noise startled him.

Morgan was hunched over the counter throwing back shots. In all the years he had known him, Jared had never seen Morgan drink more than a beer at a time. He was even more shocked when, upon noticing him, the man hugged him. Also, previously unheard of.

Jared tentatively patted Morgan on the back. “Um. Have you seen Jensen?”

Stepping back, he shook Jared’s shoulders lightly. “He left last night. I thought you had, too.” Morgan’s speech was somewhat drunken and entirely too pleased for the current situation to warrant before he pulled Jared back into another bear hug.

Jared fumbled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it over Morgan’s back, trying to see if Jensen had called him, but the battery was dead. Apparently finished, Morgan stepped back, patted his cheek, and shoved Jared towards the exit. “You should go home.”

Jared shrugged off the morning so far and put his jacket on before heading for the door, cursing his phone. He was going to have to walk. If he ran, he might make it home in time to change before Temple.

He was so dead.

“Jared?”

He glanced back at Morgan, who was sitting at the bar again.

“My door is always open to you.”

Huh. This day was definitely making his personal top ten for weirdness.

Jared took off in the direction of the Ridge.

…  
…

Jared watched with a heavy heart as his mother talked to Genevieve. Judging by their covert glances in his direction, he assumed they were planning the Joining. He’d somehow managed to sneak home and change before Temple, but he was pretty sure he smelled like a barroom floor and other things best not to think about when going into a place of worship. Sighing, he skirted the long way around and elbowed Chris as he moved into the line of people crawling into the building. He’d managed to charge his phone enough to make a few texts, even though there was only one person he was really interested in contacting.

Jared checked his cell as he made his way through the pews, but the only message on his screen was the one he’d sent earlier.

_Missed you this morning. Later?_

He did not enjoy waking up hung over. He especially did not enjoy waking up hung over and alone.

A quiet vibration alerted him to a new message. _Not tonight._

Jared swore under his breath and smashed his phone against his thigh, effectively killing what was left of his battery power. He slid into his seat seconds before the door closed, jumping when Gen laced her fingers with his. He hadn’t noticed her move in next to him. After a brief squeeze, he untangled their hands, crossed his arms, and directed his attention to the priest.

Temple was mandatory attendance, every Sunday, whether he liked it or not.

Sometimes, there were funerals; always, there was tribe business. Today, there was a Joining. Jared rubbed his wrist and watched as two people he’d graduated with threw their few remaining months of freedom away. Usually, Joinings didn’t happen until the fall, but every now and then, a couple couldn’t wait to share their life together. In less pretty terms, they wanted to fuck. Jared, on the other hand, had every intention of taking advantage of every last second of freedom afforded to him.

Jared joined the procession to the front and kneeled in front of the priest. The priest dipped his fingers in a bowl and lifted a bloody bit of meat out to place on his tongue. The offering was supposed to be the blood of Anubis himself, but he and Chris had snuck in when they were eight and discovered that it was cow kidney. The pack made a big deal of sacred offerings and keeping their souls pure and their minds and bodies strong; the Egyptians were a bit…messier than their Grecian counterparts, favouring the blood sacrifices and mummified corpses over ambrosia and Cupid’s arrows. The stained glass windows of the Temple depicted plagues and the deaths of children instead of angels and pretty colours.

Jared sighed and swallowed the gift before making his way back to his momma and Gen.

…  
…

Jared rubbed a piece of gum stuck to the bench in front of him. When Kebechet were young, under the age of eight, the punishment for misbehaviour was cleaning all the gum off the pews. He and Jeff had spent a lot of time scrubbing gum; that was why they made sure to contribute a new piece whenever some sad soul cleared off the old ones. They were about due. Jared leaned over to discuss the merits of Bubblicious as opposed to Juicy Fruit when he realized that his brother wasn’t there. In fact, his brother wasn’t anywhere in their pew; neither was his sister.

The priest clapped his hands for attention and Jared turned to the front. If they had figured out a way to get out of Temple and not taken him with them, he was going to be pissed.

“You may have noticed the absence of some of our first and third children. It has been brought to our attention that they have left the Ridge without permission. As you know, the penalty for unsanctioned leave is severe. Please join with me in praying for their souls and their safe return.”

Jared stared at the bowed heads around him.

No.

The penalty wasn’t just severe; it was death, if you were lucky. That was if the Nefertem didn’t find you first.

Jared ‘s head whipped around as he frantically searched the crowd. His brother and sister were not the only ones missing; other firsts and thirds were gone as well, at least ten of them. He scrambled after his mother as she left the bench, frantically reaching for her arm.

“Momma, Jeff wouldn’t do this. Momma?”

Jared ducked as his momma grabbed his ear and pulled him down to her level.

“You hush up, right now,” she hissed.

“Momma, something must have happened. We have to find them.”

Someone cleared his throat behind them and Jared felt the blood drain from his face as he turned to encounter the head priest and some of his advisors.

Jared’s mother smiled sweetly at them even as she shoved him roughly towards the parking lot. “Go wait in the car.”

“But—”

“You aren’t disrespecting your mother, are you, young man?”

All the hair on the back of Jared’s neck stood up. It was an unspoken rule to never, under any circumstances, garner the attention of the high priests. Those who did had a habit of disappearing. Jared ducked his head and, with a final look at his momma being led back into the temple, headed for their car.

Jared opened the driver’s side door and fumbled under the dash for the charger for his phone. He needed to talk to someone. He needed Jensen. Jensen had a way of talking him off of whatever metaphorical cliff he happened to be standing on, and with Jared’s penchant for overreacting, it was a skill he had honed to a science over the years.

Jared could admit that their relationship was a little one-sided. Jensen had shown up in his life at a time when he’d needed him most. At first, he had been the best friend Jared needed when no one else understood how trapped and isolated he felt. Then, when he’d needed to control what was happening to his body, Jensen had been his outlet for that, too. Jensen was exactly what Jared needed, when he needed it. No questions asked.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t figured out that there was something wrong with that. He just refused to think too hard about the fact that Jensen didn’t seem to be getting anything out of their relationship. Jared needed him, and in a world where every decision was made for him, he clung to the one thing, the one person he didn’t have to share.

Which was why it was severely stressing him out that Jensen wasn’t answering his phone. He was on his third round of dialing and hanging up before the voicemail could kick in when he heard an answering ring not a foot away.

“If you’re not going to answer that, then turn the damn thing off!” A sharp command cut across the parking lot. Jared startled and then slid swiftly out of the car onto his knees as his mind registered the goddess Bastet’s voice. It was an ingrained response to bow when the goddess was in the vicinity. Kebechet were taught that from birth, and thankfully only had to remember once a year when she came to collect for the Harvest. Jared’s breath left his lungs in rapid little puffs, his shoulders trembling as he crouched down on the pavement and pressed his forehead to the ground.

_Do not speak unless spoken too. Do not make eye contact._

The litany they were forced to recite at their parents’ feet every morning flashed across his brain as other thoughts scrambled around inside his head. If Bastet was here, then she knew about the missing children. If she found them before the Kebechet, he would never see his family again.

Jared peeked up from under his bangs and froze as a pair of designer pink heels came into view. In his peripheral, he could see two other pairs of feet standing just behind the goddess, one on her left and one on her right. One male and one female, if size and style were any indication.

“And what do we have here?”

Jared squeezed his eyes shut and tried to calm his breathing.

“Let me see you, puppy.” Passing affection coloured the goddess’s tone and Jared slowly lifted his face and blinked into the sun. Bastet was beautiful in her human countenance; she went by the name Lauren Cohen when she wore this face. Jared always found it a bit of a bitch move that she was allowed a last name when none of the Nefertem or Kebechet had one. Jared wasn’t sure what it was she did, exactly, but he knew she had more power than most world leaders, the president of the United States included. There was always something rippling behind her eyes; it was easy to see the face of the cat ready to take over. She was gorgeous and twice as dangerous.

Bastet crooked her finger and Jared swallowed as he rose to his feet, trying his damnedest to tuck his shoulders and appear smaller. He watched as her eyes took a leisurely path down his body, his skin crawling with every second. Her fingers snapped out faster than any human could react and with a flick of her wrist, her nails shredded the arm of his dress shirt, dropping it to his wrist.

He glanced at his arm and was relieved not to see blood. She dragged her fingertips over his arm band.

“Second son?”

Jared stared; it took him a moment to realize that she had asked a question. “Yes,” he stammered.

Bastet rubbed her finger along her bottom lip and sighed. “Pity.”

It took another moment for him to realize that she was no longer talking to him. Glancing behind her, he almost collapsed in relief. “Je—”

His words were cut off as, in a move too fast to follow, Jensen’s hand wrapped around his throat and lifted him off the ground. He stared in shock as Adrianne came up from Bastet’s other side and waggled her finger back and forth in front of his face, mockingly. “Do not speak unless spoken to.”

He was really starting to dislike this bitch.

Rapidly losing oxygen, he stared into Jensen’s eyes and saw nothing there. No compassion, no concern, nothing he was used to. It was that more than the pain in his throat that brought blackness welling up behind his eyes. Just before he passed out, he heard Bastet order Jensen to drop him. Jensen released him as though Bastet had cut a string, and he tumbled painfully to the pavement.

Jared stared up at the man he’d fallen asleep with only the night before. Betrayal roiled in his stomach and tried to force its way up his throat. He felt more than saw Bastet come up behind Jensen and peer over his shoulder at Jared.

“Maybe the mutt knows. “

Jared’s eyes flicked to Adrianne. She had a wicked smirk on her face and it was a punch in the gut to realize how much she had always hated him; the older he got, the more painfully obvious it had become.

Jared cringed as Bastet ran her fingertips down Jensen’s face and he nuzzled against her hand like the cat he was. If he hadn’t been slowly losing his mind, he would have puked on Jensen’s shoes.

He knew, okay. He knew that Bastet was more than a figurehead when it came to the Nefertem, especially to her guardians. He was painfully aware that most, if not all of her precious guardians had spent time in her bed, and that included Jensen. But he was a master of ignoring the things he didn’t want to see, and up until today, that had been number one on his list.

Also on his list was the fact that Jensen was more than cable of snapping him like a twig without breaking a sweat. It was easy to ignore that fact when Jensen had never so much as raised a finger against him. Hell, the guy wouldn’t even fuck him, though Jared had been more than forthcoming about his desires in that area. Jensen kept telling him he wasn’t ready. Jared had decided years ago that it was Jensen’s issue, not his, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t pushed it whenever he could. Some of their best fights had been about sex.

Another snap of Bastet’s fingers had Jensen crouched in front of Jared, his hand once more wrapped around his neck and pulling him off the ground.

“So. Puppy. Do you think you can help me? I’m sure I can think of some reward for you.”

Jared choked and kicked his feet. Did this woman not realize that he was slowly dying at the hands of his pseudo-boyfriend? Not a good time to strike up a conversation.

“We’re looking for someone. A Megan? About seventeen? Brown hair, brown eyes… What am I saying, you all look alike. That’s not going to help.”

Bastet snapped her fingers at Adrianne, demanding a better description, as Jared scrabbled at Jensen’s arm, trying to pry his fingers off. Jensen just tightened his grip. Jared tried to find something in his eyes to indicate what he was supposed to do, but there was nothing there.

“She has older brothers; something with a ‘J,’ I think.”

Tears ran down Jared’s face as spots blinked before his eyes. The longer she talked, the tighter Jensen’s grip became. He assumed that was his cue to keep his mouth shut. Jared shook his head frantically in denial.

Bastet sighed. “Drop him. He’s too big to get rid of. Didn’t they used to be smaller?”

Jared fell to his knees when he was abruptly released, again, and coughed as he rubbed at the bruises he felt forming on his neck. He glared up at Jensen, trying to convey with his eyes how thoroughly pissed off he was. Right now, he didn’t give a flying fuck if he was using his bitch face; Jensen was in deep shit when he next got his hands on him.

“Eye contact? What’s this? The puppy is pissed at you, baby.”

Jared switched his glare to the goddess. He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t make himself do it.

Bastet sighed. “Take care of that, we have things to do.”

Jared kept his eyes open right up until the second Jensen’s booted foot connected with his cheekbone and the world faded to black.

…  
…

Jared peeked around the frozen peas he held to his face and watched his momma alphabetize the canned goods. Apparently, her first efforts towards colour coordination were not applicable at this point.

Jared watched her study a can of mushroom soup. Her hands were shaking.

“What are we going to do?” His voice was abrupt, angry, echoing in the tiny kitchen, and his momma dropped the can, wrapping her fingers around the edge of the counter.

“Where were you last night?”

Jared stared at his mother’s back. “I was…”

She spun in place and fixed him with a glare. “Not here. That’s where you were. Your brother told you to be here.”

Jared dropped the peas on the kitchen table. “I’m sorry. I…”

“Sorry just don’t cut it anymore, boy. I’ve been a good momma to you. Cared for you when you were sick, taught you right from wrong. All you had to do was be home last night. That was it. Now Jeff had to go in your place.” He’d heard his momma angry before, but he’d never heard her like this, utter and complete dismissal in every twitch of her lips.

“In my place? What the fuck is going on?”

Jared didn’t even see her hand dart towards his face, but he sure as hell felt it connect with his cheek. “Don’t you sass me!”

Jared sat back in his chair. He didn’t realize he had stood up. “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. You haven’t been paying attention to anything except that damn Nefertem boy for years.”

Jared flinched. So maybe his relationship with Jensen hadn’t been as subtle as he’d thought.

“You are going to go find your brother and send him back here.” There wasn’t an ounce of give in her body to suggest room for argument.

“What about Megan?”

“You’re going to find your sister and hide.”

Jared was feeling less than charitable when it came to keeping his mouth shut. “For how long? From what?”

“Forever. You can’t ever come back here.”

Jared slammed his hands on the table. “Why?”

“Because that bitch can’t ever get her hands on you.”

Jared flinched; he’d never heard his momma swear, ever. “Who… Bastet? She doesn’t want me, she wants Megan. Why does she want Megan?”

“She doesn’t. She just doesn’t know it yet.”

Jared’s head was spinning and he could only partially blame the mild concussion. “This makes no sense.”

A loud bang on the door interrupted his next question. “Open for the Guardians,” a voice hollered.

His momma stood up and smoothed her hair back. “Go now.”

“But—”

Jared stared at the door and his momma. The Guardians were forcing the lock and by the volume of voices leaking into the house, there were more than a few. She pulled him in for a fierce hug and then grabbed his backpack out from behind the fridge. Jared glanced, surprised, at his clothes inside. She’d already packed for him? “There’s some money in the pocket.”

Jared headed for the back door and turned to look at his momma, who offered him a small smile.

“I love you. I did my best, you tell him that.”

“Who—”

The front door broke away from the jamb with a splinter of wood and Jared ran out the back.

…  
…

He was three miles away from the Ridge before he heard a noise behind him.

He turned and stared at the man bringing up his rear. Misha sauntered past him, the walking stick in his hand hitting the dirt every few steps. “Misha? What are you doing?”

“Going for a walk.”

“To where?”

“I don’t know, you haven’t stopped yet.”

Jared sighed and seriously considered just dropping to the dirt and letting the world roll on without him. Rubbing at his throat, he squared his shoulder and shook his head. “You can’t come with me.”

“I’m not. I’m just walking in the same direction as you, and I may continue to do so for quite some time.”

“Misha…”

Misha tapped his walking stick on Jared’s foot and peered up into his face. Up until that moment, it had somehow escaped Jared’s notice that Misha was wearing a sombrero. It made it a little difficult to take him seriously. “Jared, you’ve never left the city. You need help. I’m of a mind to do so. Besides, I hate cows.”

“Why?”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Jared raised an eyebrow. “No, I meant… You’re fucking weird.”

Misha shrugged his assent and gestured down the road.

Jared looked back towards the Ridge. It might come in handy to have someone around who had actually been beyond Port Arthur. “Fine. But…keep up.”

Misha looked vaguely insulted. “Of course.”

Jared gripped his pack tighter and started walking, every second of the last twenty four hours weighing his steps. He trudged. He was trudging. There was trudge-age. His life was twirling down the toilet at an alarming rate. They’d been going silently for almost ten minutes, Jared so far past self pity he’d begun to circle back around before Misha had apparently had enough.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Not really.” Jared shrugged and stared pitifully at his feet.

“Do you have a destination? I find it’s helpful during a quest to at least know which way to point your feet.”

Jared bit back any smartass comment and smiled as he noted where they were.

“The White Crown.”

Misha tapped his bottom lip with the staff. “Interesting choice.”

Jared ignored him and quickened his pace across the parking lot. Stepping through the double doors, he was relieved to see Morgan in the same spot he’d left him earlier.

“You said you’d help me if I needed it.”

Morgan spun in his seat to face Jared. He appeared more sober and less friendly than their earlier encounter. “Not exactly what I said, but close enough. What do you need?”

Jared looked at Misha and his walking stick. “A car.”

“Why do you need a car, Jared?” Morgan had a way of staring at a person like he was picking apart all the pieces of their conscience. It was fucking creepy.

Jared stuttered like a whore in church. “There’s a…situation, and I need to go…somewhere, and help…someone.”

Misha snorted and Jared shot back an elbow into his gut. He was rewarded by a choking noise and decided that he must have hit his sternum.

Morgan rubbed his hands together, the glee on his features in no way related to the current conversation. “It’ll take me an hour to get a car here. Are you hungry?”

Jared’s stomach rumbled. “We could eat.”

Morgan stood and ushered them towards the kitchen. “I was going to make steak.”

Jared nodded. “He’s a vegetarian.”

…  
…

Jared lay back in the booth, rubbing his full belly and emptying his backpack of the money his momma had stashed there.

“So. I have…ninety five dollars. You?”

Misha stared at the coin and bills Jared had dumped on the table. He pushed his hands into his pockets and tossed a roll of bills in with the rest. Jared picked it up and quickly counted out five hundred dollars, raising his eyebrow.

Misha schooled his features, sphinx-like. “I’m good at poker.”

Jared handed the bills back. That could come in handy.

Before he had time to contemplate it any further, the door flew open against the wall, heralding the arrival of Chris.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

An apparently pissed off Chris.

Jared stood and edged a few steps away from the table. He wanted the option of diving back into the booth. He was bigger now, but he’d never forgotten the damage Chris’s right hook could do to his face. “Chris… I…”

“Nope! No. Don’t even try it, Jared, I’ve known you since before you could piss standing up and I am not going to let you do something so fucking stupid…” Chris literally hitched up his jeans , a move Jared had only seen in black and white cowboy movies, before finishing his sentence, “alone.”

Jared glanced behind Chris. Sophia and Gen hovered in the doorway, a mixture of determination and concern on both of their faces.

For fuck’s sake. “You can’t—”

Chris cut him off and stomped all over any excuse Jared might have had. “You don’t get to choose this. We’re not going to sit home with our thumbs up our asses while you get to go out and have all the fun.”

Jared sighed.

“I see you’ve found yourself another ride.”

Jared turned to Morgan, who looked less than pleased, then back to Chris, his mouth open as he tried to come up with anything that would keep them home and safe. Chris crossed his arms over his chest and tightened his jaw. “You can’t stop us. We’ll just follow you.”

Misha slapped Jared and Chris on their backs and shoved them towards the door. “Road trip!”

New Orleans, Louisiana, 2012 AD

It was eight hours and way too many bathroom breaks before they hit the outskirts of New Orleans. Misha, apparently, had the bladder of a small child.

“This is a strip club. Did we know this? Why are we at a strip club?”

Jared clapped a hand over Chris’s mouth and pushed him further into the club.

“Actually, darling, it’s a drag club,” said a voice decidedly more male than the accompanying body’s stiletto heels would imply.

Jared nodded politely at Cher and took his hand off Chris.

Chris grabbed Jared’s arm and pulled him down to his level before hissing in his ear: “Why are we at a drag club?”

“It’s the address Morgan gave me.”

“When did he give you an address? Where was I?”

Jared stood up and shrugged him off. He had a headache, his face hurt from where it was healing, and he was way past his daily tolerance for hand holding. “How the hell am I supposed to know, Chris? Last time I checked, we weren’t attached at the hip.”

“That’s been pretty obvious lately.”

Jared shoved his hair off his forehead and threw his hands in the air, frustration lacing his words. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Chris bumped his chest against Jared’s, his voice low but pissed. “It means that every time I turn around, you’re taking off to who-the-fuck-knows where.”

Jared did not have the time or patience for Chris’s bitch face. Besides, his was way better. “I don’t have to tell you everything, you’re not my mother.”

Chris poked a finger in Jared’s face. “Well maybe if you had, we wouldn’t be in the middle of a—”

Ever the pacifist, Misha stepped calmly between them. “Who are we looking for?”

Jared pulled out the card and squinted under the strobe lights, trying to decipher the printed words. “I can’t read the name.”

Chris threw his hands up in disgust and Jared curled his toes in his shoes to stop himself from taking the few steps necessary to lay Chris out flat.

“What do you want from me? It got ketchup on it when you had to stop at McDonald’s. Remember? ‘Can’t have a road trip without snacks, Jared,’” Jared mimicked in a high enough falsetto to have been mistaken for Sophia.

“Oh good gods!” Sophia shoved between them and pushed them an extra foot away from each other. “You are such an ass,” she said, poking Jared in the chest before turning on her brother. “And you are acting like a two-year-old!” Both boys sheepishly shrugged and took a half step back. “So what do we do now? Just wander on over to any Tina Turner we can find and ask if we can talk to the great sun god Ra?” Sophia let out an extremely put-upon sigh and snatched the card out of Jared’s hands. “Give me that.” Bending their heads together, she and Genevieve rubbed at the stain, trying to decipher the writing underneath.

“Well aren’t you a fine looking bunch?” Jared turned and smiled at an attractive older gentleman who had an English accent.

He shook his head. Never in his life had he described someone as “attractive” or “gentlemen”; he had no idea how those words had popped into his head. Maybe he was more tired than he’d thought. He looked helplessly at Sophia, who motioned Jared forward with her fingertips. “Um, we’re looking for…”

“Sebastian?”

Misha, who was looking at the card over the girls’ shoulders, nodded frantically.

Jared clapped his hands together. “Yes! We’re looking for Sebastian.”

The man clapped his hands together in a perfect mimic of Jared and smiled at the group. “Well, that’s me, lovey. What can I do for you?”

Scratch that. The guy was sarcastic, older than dirt, and starting to get on his nerves.

“Um. We were wondering if you could help us find, um…” Jared’s tongue tied itself in knots as the reality of the situation crashed down on him. “A good mechanic?” He looked back at the group; they were all staring at him in different degrees of disbelief. This was not him; he didn’t do stuff like this, he was a good boy. He should take his friends and go home. Get Joined with Genevieve and forget he’d ever had a brother and sister

Jared stumbled back a step and landed in a chair with his head in his hands. Where the hell had that come from?

Misha stepped to the front and up to Sebastian. “We need to speak with great sun god Ra. Occasionally known as Amun-Ra, but that’s mostly a titular issue.”

Jared smacked his hands against his forehead. Something, or someone, was definitely in his head. Closing his eyes, he tried shoving the false thoughts away, but if anything, they came back stronger. He drew in a deep breath and relaxed his muscles. There was one thought that none of the alien ones could touch. Bringing Jensen to the front of his mind, he drifted through his various memories. Swimming on the Ridge; singing in the car; long, slow kisses and hot, rushed make out sessions. He held on until the other thoughts faded away completely. Opening his eyes, he glanced up at the group, who had all been staring at him.

Sebastian had a distinctly sour look on his face as he glared at Jared and then turned on his heel, beckoning them onwards. “Follow me.”

Winding back through the club, they made their way down a hallway and towards a door clearly marked “Exit.” Jared grabbed their guide’s arm. “We need to talk to Ra.”

“Amun-Ra does not accept unsolicited visitors on Tuesdays,” Sebastian said imperiously.

Jared glared. Sebastian had offered a hoighty-toighty sniff and everything. “It’s Wednesday,” he growled.

Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose as though merely speaking to them was causing him pain “Oh. Well. Then either, now run along.” He flicked his fingers in the general direction of the door and took off back the way they had come.

“Wait!” Jared called. Sebastian turned back and tapped his foot impatiently when Jared couldn’t seem to get another word out.

Misha huffed and walked up to Sebastian, laying his fingers on the older man’s arm and tilting his head just so. “Can we get a drink first?”

“Oh! Certainly, darling. You just come on in.” Sebastian was clearly flattered, leading them back into the club.

Two hours later, Jared had been hit on by at least three Chers and one Liza. He was pretty sure that at least two of the Chers had left finger-shaped bruises on his ass and he was positive that Liza had.

Tossing back the remainder of the pinkest drink known to man, he slammed his glass on the table and stood up. “I’m heading back to the motel,” he said to no one in particular.

Chris grinned and flung the end of his feather boa over his shoulder. “But I’m going to sing!” His eyes had the same quality as when he was about to get a milkshake with extra ice cream.

Jared rubbed at the headache forming behind his eyes. Misha was in Sebastian’s lap and the girls were dressing Chris up in a wig and heels. This was reason one in a long list of why he hadn’t wanted to bring them.

“I’ll see you later. Don’t—” Jared paused to contemplate how they had found shoes in Chris’s size and then shook his head. Some things were better left alone. “Just don’t.”

…  
…

Jared threw his coat on the table and fell backwards on the bed. He had texted Gen the address of the cheap motel and hoped that someone would be sober enough to find it. He got it, okay, it was the first time any of them had been off the Ridge and the freedom was intoxicating, but…he couldn’t throw back shots and party hard when his brother and sister were out there running from Gods knew what.

He rolled his head to the side and stared at his phone. His fingers were dialing before his brain could kick in and remind him of what a bad idea this was.

“What, the fuck, do you think you’re doing?”

Jared cringed as Jensen screamed at him. There were twelve missed calls sitting in his phone’s log and just as many messages.

“Jensen, I…”

“Get your ass home, Jared. I mean it.”

Jared sat up, glaring angrily at the wall. He had more than enough of people talking to him like he was two years old. “Or what?”

Jensen sighed; even over the phone line, Jared heard every nuance of the exhale. “Or, I have a message for you…from Bastet.”

Jared froze. Anytime the Goddess became involved, it ended bloody. Always. “What’s that?”

“Return home or you’ll be destroyed. She’s not really one for small talk.” Jensen’s voice had gone completely monotonous.

“What are you, her messenger boy or something?” Jared snapped.

“Or something.”

“Jensen, you know I’m not coming home, so either stop me or stay out of—”

“I’m her consort.”

Jared slumped over and pressed the phone to his forehead. He took a few deep breaths before he returned it to his ear. His voice was a lot calmer than his stomach. “How long have you been waiting to tell me that?”

Jensen’s reply was small and muffled, but still audible. “I was never going to tell you.”

“Then why now?” Jared heard the whine in his voice, but he couldn’t have stopped it if he had tried.

“Because I don’t think you realize how hard it is for me to ignore her orders.”

“Is that what you’ve been doing with me, ignoring her orders?” Jared flopped onto his back. His head was pounding and his stomach rolling frantically towards his throat. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Oh, right, like you weren’t fucking Genevieve the whole time you were with me.”

Jared closed his eyes, every word clipped and distinct. “I meant I have a headache and it’s making me nauseous.”

“Oh.”

There were tears in his eyes and he worked frantically to keep them out of the conversation. “You’ve been fucking her the whole time, haven’t you?”

Jensen’s silence was enough of an answer.

Jared wiped at his face and swallowed harshly. “You do what you need to, Jensen, and so will I.”

Any hold Jensen had on his temper was gone, his tone cruel and burning into Jared. “You think this has been fucking easy for me? I was raised to serve her. I’ve known since I was five what my future was gonna be, and I still turned my back on all that for you. Fuck, I’m still doing it. You were never supposed to leave town.”

Jared knew there was more to this that he should be examining, but all he could ask was, “Why? Why did you ever touch me if it was such a fucking hardship for you?”

“Do you think this has been easy for me? If anyone ever found out—”

“No, I get it. You were tapped to be the queen cunt’s plaything. Can’t have you screwing a mutt.” Jared tried to slam his mouth shut before the words could rush from his lips, but somewhere in his heart, he knew it had to be said.

“Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Yeah. Because that was the part of that sentence you should have objected to.”

Jared listened as Jensen drew a deep breath and returned to the slow deliberate drawl he used whenever Jared deliberately pushed his buttons. “I’ve delivered my message, Jared. Don’t make us come after you.”

Jared threw his phone against the wall, watching it shatter into pieces, and flopped back on the bed.

…  
…

Jared wasn’t quite sure how they all made it to breakfast, but he was curious as to why the drag queen, Sebastian, was still there, and why his tongue was attached to Misha’s tonsils. Taking a cautious seat in the booth, he mentally calculated the group’s combined hangover level.

“What did I miss?”

Chris rolled his face on the table and squinted up at Jared. “Tequila. Lots and lots of tequila.”

“Uh-huh.” Jared picked up his menu and eyed the outsider. “So…upper management has issued a cease and desist.”

Everyone sat up and stared at him. Even Misha managed to untangle himself.

Chris flicked a finger at Jared’s menu. “Or?”

“Or we can consider ourselves fired, permanently.”

“Who told you that?”

Jared scrunched down in the seat and avoided their eyes. “Jensen.”

Chris sighed and rubbed his fingertips against his temples, speaking more to the table than to Jared. “How, exactly, did you manage to get a message from the queen’s beloved consort?”

Jared threw up his hands. Mentally. He didn’t want to look completely like a flailing girl. “You knew about that?”

Genevieve stared at him with something in her eyes that he wasn’t sure he wanted to decipher. “Everyone knows that.”

“What’s she done this time?”

All eyes turned to Sebastian, who lifted his coffee cup and blew across the rim before acknowledging them. “You’re talking about the effervescent Bastet, aren’t you? I don’t imagine the Kebechet have much to worry about other than her. Healing goddess my ass; she was a bitch then and she’s a bitch now. Cats are fickle creatures at the best of times.”

Sebastian took a sip of his coffee and smiled sunnily at them all. “So. What are the children of Anubis doing slumming it in the Big Easy?”

Misha laid a hand on Sebastian’s arm and gave him the biggest doe eyes Jared had ever seen. “Trying to find our families.”

Sophia snorted. “ _And_ not get killed.”

“Hmm. And how would I be able to help you?”

Misha’s eyes widened and he made a choked gasp before hitting the floor and covered his head with his arms, only to be snatched back up into Sebastian’s lap. “Oh, no, lovey, you keep those hands right where they were.” Jared smirked and then felt a bit queasy. He didn’t want to know what they had been up to last night to instill the kind of reaction Misha was having after he realized he’d slept with—

Jared groaned “Ra.” It wasn’t a question. Jared sat back and lifted his coffee; he’d be damned if he was getting on his knees for this man—God—man. Besides, Misha seemed to be doing that enough for all of them.

“In the flesh,” Ra quipped with a little flourish of his hand.

Unimpressed, Jared leaned forward. “You see everything that happens under the sun. Can you find my brother and sister?”

Smarm oozed from the man’s every pore. “Maybe, maybe not. What if they don’t want to be found?”

“That’s not really up to them anymore,” Jared bit out. “They didn’t consult me when they got lost, I don’t have to ask permission to find them.”

“Yes, I can see that. You’re not an overly sympathetic person, are you? Do you know why they ran away?”

Jared clenched his jaw and spit the words across the table. “No. And it doesn’t matter.”

Sophia choked on her toast. Jared spared her a glance; she had turned white. “Soph?”

“You don’t know why?” she screeched. “All this time and you don’t know why? You have to be the most self-centered person on the planet!” She got up and stormed outside; Chris slowly put his napkin down and followed her. Jared was in the middle of getting up to go after them when Ra spoke again.

“So, do you have anything of his?”

Jared fidgeted in his seat, his bravado of a moment ago plummeting to the bottom of his belly as he felt the odds stack up against him. He didn’t have anything of his brother’s; he didn’t even have a plan, really.

“We have Jared,” Misha said.

“Okay.” Ra patted Misha’s head and looked at Jared appraisingly. “This won’t hurt.” Ra rose from his seat and tilted Jared’s chin up in his hand. “Much.”

Before Jared could protest, Sebastian—Ra had placed his hands on Jared’s head, his thumbs digging into his temples.

Jared’s spine bowed and his head fell back; it felt like the edge of a knife was scraping across his soul. There was a commanding pressure inside his skull like someone was trying to dig something out and he felt blood drip from his nose. This was so not the kind of thing a person did in the middle of an IHOP.

It took a few seconds of disorientation for him to realize that Ra wasn’t touching him anymore. He was left panting and crouched over, holding his stomach as if he could push everything inside him back into place. He blinked up at Ra, who just tutted sympathetically and patted Jared’s shoulder.

“You know, I love her dearly, but that woman oversteps her boundaries whenever she can. Just like her mother…”

“What does that mean?” Jared choked around the lump of bile in his throat.

“It means, dear boy, that I won’t help you.”

“Why not?”

“There is something,” Sebastian tapped Jared’s head and Jared flinched, “declaring a very loud ‘fuck off’ in there. You have no past and no future. I can’t follow your line. Now, obviously, you exist— you’re sitting right here, so either someone has cast a spell on you, or you’re dead.”

“Who would do that?” Jared was thankful that Genevieve had taken over the role of spokesperson because all he could do right now was gulp water and try not to throw up.

Ra shrugged. “Probably Anubis.”

“He hasn’t bothered with us in thousands and thousands of years. I really doubt he’d suddenly start messing around in Jared’s head.”

Jared really appreciated Genevieve’s natural bitchiness at the moment.

“It’s not for me to say what Anubis does or does not do with his forsaken, but I can guarantee that anytime Bastet manages to pull her head out from under a skirt, it’s never good.”

Jared choked on his water and found a reason to attempt speech again. “But doesn’t she have a male consort?” Jared patted himself on the back. Yeah, that sounded totally casual; nothing pathetic or jealous here. Moving on.

Ra raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure she does, but I can guarantee that she also has a female one.” Jared felt fingernails digging inside his head again; thankfully, it was closer to the invasion that had happened at the club last night as than the nausea of this morning. He slammed a wall down on his thoughts and glared at Ra, who only shrugged as if to say “Can’t blame me for trying.”

“Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted, I was going to ask whether you had checked with Osiris.”

“We didn’t think going near the Ennead was in our best interest.” Misha was hanging off Ra’s lap by half an ass cheek and seemed to be slowly squirming his way towards the door.

“Well, if I can’t see them under the sun, they may be below,” Ra said, wrapping his arm around Misha’s waist and pulling him more firmly into his lap.

Jared grabbed Misha’s wrist and pulled him onto the bench next to him. “My family is not dead.”

Sebastian wrinkled his nose at Misha’s relocation. “Oh, not everyone in the Underworld is dead. I have a vacation home there.”

Patience had never really been Jared’s personal virtue. “Why in the fuck would you have a vacation home in Hell?”

“It’s quite peaceful if you choose the right neighbourhood.”

Misha made a choked noise and looked vaguely ill. Jared did not want to know.

“Where are we supposed to find Osiris? It’s not like we can just wander into the Underworld.”

Ra waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, please, he’s only there for meetings. He’s usually above ground, just like the rest of us. “

They were about ten minutes past polite conversation and a few miles away from any semblance of tolerance, as far as Jared was concerned. “Where. Is. He?”

“Hollywood.”

“Of course.” Jared banged his head on the table. “Do you have an address?”

“Wait a minute.“ Genevieve grabbed his arm and hissed in his ear: “We are not going to California.”

Ra started patting his pockets. “I have a card here somewhere… Ah! Here you are.”

Misha looked at the card and passed it to Genevieve when she snapped her fingers in his face. Glaring at the words and then at Ra, she flicked it with the tip of her finger in disgust. “This is a church.”

“He has offices there.”

“Give me that!” Jared snatched the card from Genevieve. “Scientology?”

Ra shrugged. “Osiris does have a sense of humour. I hear he’s angling to be Tom Cruise’s next agent.”

Misha sighed and picked up his coffee. “Praise Xenu.”

Jared woke to the sound of Sophia sliding out of the room, followed shortly by Chris. They were somewhere just beyond the New Mexico border; it felt like everyone had held their breath through Texas and was so exhausted by the time they hit the border that none of them could contemplate driving another mile. It made no sense that Chris and Sophia were wandering around. Not to mention still not speaking to him. He had no idea what cluster fuck he’d caused, but he was getting tired of people ignoring him. At the moment, the only one who was still talking to him was Misha, and he was asleep on a yoga mat with his feet wrapped around his head, which just spoke volumes about the level of conversation they could engage in.

That, and Jared was seriously going to kill someone if Sophia bitched for one more second about stopping in Vegas.

He barely made it five feet out the door before he heard Justin’s voice. He’d been betting on at least another day before the Nefertem found them. This was not going to be pretty.

“So, Chris, are you fucking your sister?”

What the fuck? Jared ran down the sidewalk separating the rooms from the parking lot of the motel and slid to a halt at the edge of the building. He peeked around the corner into an alleyway.

“What? You were all thinking it.” Justin was talking to three others: Adrianne, of course, and Chad, who Jared had seen around sometimes, though not usually on their shift. And Jensen.

Chad shook his head at Justin. “That wasn’t cool, man.”

Sophia was shaking like a leaf and Jared didn’t want to think about what kind of withdrawal she was going through. Or at least, he assumed it was withdrawal; with the amount of drugs he’d seen her funneling through her body lately, it was a miracle she hadn’t overdosed.

Chris held a knife in his hand. “Keep your mouth shut.” Seriously, what the fuck? Chris was a master at the tough guy act, but you _did not_ threaten a Nefertem. Like, ever. Especially when they were in their leathers.

“Or what? Run along, little man, you have no power here.” Justin slid his fingers along Sophia’s shoulders and pulled her against his chest. “Come on, honey, I can make you feel all better.”

Sophia whimpered in his embrace.

“Don’t touch my sister, douchebag.”

Justin smirked, not intimidated by Chris in the least. “Fuck, man, if I have to come on this doomed adventure, I deserve to have a little fun. Besides, your vanishing act has jumped the timeline, so now I don’t have to wait for the Harvest. I should probably be thanking you.”

Chris shoved Justin, who smashed back into the wall with an evil light shining from his eyes. Sophia was left standing between them with a confused look on her face.

“You used aggressive force against a Guardian. You know what that means, boy.”

Chris cracked his neck and crooked his fingers in the traditional “come and get me” gesture. “Yeah, it means I get to kick your ass.”

Jared briefly weighed the odds in Chris’s favour; Justin may have been a head taller, but Chris was solid muscle and _really_ pissed off.

None of that mattered, though. Genetics were a bitch; Justin was stronger. It happened so fast that Jared couldn’t process the sequence of events, even though he never took his eyes off them; it took a pathetically small amount of time for Justin to get Chris on his knees, his hands on either side of Chris’s neck, seconds from snapping it like a twig. Sophia jumped on Justin’s back, wrapping her legs around his waist as she beat his head with her fists; he threw her off easily and Sophia hit the same wall Justin had and slid to the ground, her legs splayed in front of her on the pavement and her head listless against her shoulder.

“Fuck, you guys are pathetic. Did you really think you were going to accomplish anything?” Justin spat blood out on the ground. It was a tiny triumph for Kebechet everywhere that Chris had at least gotten one good hit in.

“He managed to make you bleed, so I think we’re getting somewhere.” Jared stepped out from his hiding place and inched into the alley. “We’re going to find my family. You don’t need to be here.” Somewhere in the back of his mind, a plan was forming. If he could keep Justin’s focus, he might be able to get them all out of there alive. It wasn’t a particularly good plan, but he was under a lot of pressure.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Jared. Fancy seeing you here.” Jared didn’t miss the glare that Justin shot in Jensen’s direction, though he couldn’t imagine the reason for it. The other Nefertem were keeping their distance, blocking the mouth of the alley to keep newcomers out.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Justin smirked and tightened his hands on Chris’s neck. Jared was getting just the tiniest bit sick of the level of hatred the Nefertem seemed to have for him; a guy could develop a complex. Justin’s fingers twitched and Chris came to enough to struggle in his grip; Justin pulled Chris’s head back and looped an arm over his chest, his other hand gripping his chin firmly. He nodded at Jared. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Hey, just for fun, why don’t you ask Jensen what his real orders are?”

Suddenly, something popped loudly; Justin slumped sideways to the ground with a stunned expression on his face. Jared tracked the source of the sound and his eyes caught on Sophia and the gun raised in front of her. Jensen calmly eased the weapon out of her hands and rose from his crouch beside her; Jared hadn’t even seen him move.

Chris scrambled to her side, murmuring soothing words into her hair.

Jared watched Jensen smooth his hand down Sophia’s hair and smile gently at her. “It’s over now.” Sure. She got Jensen’s sympathetic side; Jared got kicked in the face.

Sophia briefly clenched Jensen’s hand and stood mostly under her own power, her brother supporting her much less than Jared thought the situation warranted. Jared stopped her with a hand on her shoulder as she passed him. Staring into her eyes, he noted that they were clearer than he’d seen in years.

His mind stacked up the countless mysterious bruises he’d seen on her skin and he looked back at Justin’s body. Jared kissed her forehead and watched her head back towards the room.

“You knew,” he said, turning to Jensen. “I still don’t know what, exactly, but you knew.”

Jensen ran a hand through his hair. He looked tired and Jared fought a war within himself, one side desperately wanting to offer a hug and the other warning him away. Jensen waved his hand, dismissing the other Nefertem to go after Chris and Sophia; Jared had forgotten they were even there. Jensen tucked the gun into his pants at the small of his back, some kind of internal debate evident on his face. Jensen opened his mouth and closed it again, searching Jared’s face before coming to a decision only he knew the particulars of. “Justin had arranged for Sophia to be his after the Harvest.”

Stunned. Angry. All viable emotions crowded for space in Jared’s head. “What do you mean, _his?_ ”

Jensen just looked at him for a few moments before answering. “Exactly what you don’t want me to mean.”

Okay.

That was the moment that Jared lost his shit. He was getting sick of being on the tail end of Jensen’s “need to know” hierarchy. Jared slammed Jensen against a wall, their faces inches apart. “You knew, and you did _nothing!_ ”

“I gave her the gun,” Jensen said. His face and body were relaxed, not betraying any hint that Jared was in any way a threat to him.

Well, fuck that shit.

Jared took a step back and smashed his fist into Jensen’s face.

…  
…

“Chris! What the fuck is going on?”

Jared came through the hotel room door with hellfire in his veins. Sophia was curled up on the bed as Chris stroked her hair; Misha and Genevieve stood awkwardly by the bathroom and Chad and Adrianne appeared to be guarding the door.

Jared threw the front door extra, extra hard against the wall and glared at the Nefertem. “Get the fuck out of here!”

“I don’t think so. You and your little friends,” Adrianne sneered, “are coming back to the compound with us. Tonight.”

Jared matched her toe to toe. “Listen, bitch—”

“Shut the fuck up! All of you!”

The both turned towards Chris, neither willing to completely take their eyes off the other.

“My sister just shot someone, and you all are going to back the fuck off so that I can deal with that, or so help me, I am going to pop a cap in all of your asses.”

Surprisingly enough, it was Chad who grabbed Adrianne’s arm and pulled her out the door, mumbling something about waiting outside. He had always seemed a bit of a “second stringer” to Jared; it was surprising that the guy was even on a mission this important. Jared watched the door close and slowly turned back to Chris, letting the last twenty minutes of tension ease off his shoulders.

“Pop a cap? Really?”

Chris shrugged and dropped back down to the bed. “Too much Grand Theft Auto.”

Sophia whimpered and Jared came over to sit by her. He ran his fingers through her hair and she stared up through tear-filled eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I… Don’t let them take me.”

“Shh, honey, nothing is going to happen to you,” Jared soothed. He was too sympathetic.

Sophia sat up and crawled into his lap, tucking her head under his chin.

Jared looked at Chris over her head. “This is why you came with us? To get her out?”

Chris twisted his fingers in the blanket, studiously avoiding Jared’s eyes. “We were planning to leave before the Harvest; this just seemed like good timing.”

And just like that, all the tension of the last few days was back. “Why didn’t you tell me? Ask me for help? We’ve been best friends, brothers, since—”

“Brothers, Jared?” Chris stood and paced in front of the bed. “We drink together and we hang out. That’s it. And the only reason we do that is because we grew up in each other’s pockets. We’re friends, sure, but you have never been my ‘go to’ guy. Hell, you’ve been so busy bitching since high school about how hard done by you are that I’m not surprised you haven’t noticed.”

Jared sat back against the headboard, clutching Sophia tighter to his chest. “I…thought we were…”

“Jared,” Sophia cut in, “what he’s trying to say is…you’ve had your head so far up your ass we’re surprised you can still breathe some days.”

Jared stared at her and the rest of his so-called friends.

“What about you two? Why are you here?”

Misha shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do at the time.”

Genevieve glared at him. “Do you really need to ask me that?” She threw up her hands and stomped out the door. Jared was pretty sure that if she had had the gun right then, there would have been more than one body littering the pavement.

Misha shook his head at Jared. “Statistically speaking, most assholes think they’re nice guys.” He followed Genevieve and closed the door quietly behind him.

Sophia sat up and patted Jared’s cheek, drawing his focus away from the door. “You’re not an asshole, Jared. You’re just…” She lowered her face and peeked up at him through her eyelashes. “Self-absorbed.”

Jared stared at the top of her head. “What’s the difference?”

Chris tapped his fingers on the dresser across the room and offered Jared a small smile. “Assholes don’t care that they’re assholes.”

“I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but I’d go with it for now if I were you.”

Jared looked up to find Jensen filling the doorway. The guy had some serious ninja skills to have gotten the door open without anyone noticing. Just one more thing he’d failed to mention to Jared; given the way things were going with pretty much everyone around him, it was par for the course.

This was shaping up to be the best day ever. Tightening his grip on Sophia, who apparently didn’t yet hate him enough to get off his lap, he growled at Jensen. “What do you want?”

Jensen pushed off the doorjamb and took a few steps into the room. Jared noted the way his eyes tracked its occupants and all possible exits as he moved. Forget “ninja”; the guy was a super spy. “Just letting you know we head out first thing in the morning.”

Jared shook his head as slid Sophia onto the bed so he could stand. Crossing his arms over his chest, he did his very best to look imposing and authoritative. “I’m not going back.”

Jensen completely ignored the display and sat on the bed in the place Jared had vacated, laying his fingertips on Sophia’s face. “Figured as much.”

Jared’s hands twitched with the suppressed urge to slap Jensen away from her as Jensen ignored him in favour of lifting Sophia’s chin into the light, checking the bruises. Satisfied with whatever he found, Jensen shifted until he was sprawled against the headboard, regarding Jared coolly. “We’re escorting you to…where was it next, California?”

Chris took the steps Jared badly wanted to and pulled his sister off the bed and away from Jensen. “I thought you were supposed to bring us back to the compound tonight.”

Jensen shrugged. “I’m in charge now, and I say we ride this out a little longer. Besides, when you find the others, we have to bring them back too; it’s easier to do that if you’re together.”

Chris frowned. “You know we’re not going to let that happen.”

Jared stared at his supposed best friend and the guy he was pretty sure at this point was now his ex-boyfriend. They were there for entirely different reasons and none of those were Jared’s; he could admit, if only in his mind, that he was pretty pleased Jensen had just assumed they would succeed. At this point Jared was taking his positives anywhere he could get them. Two weeks ago—hell, two days ago, he had been so sure of where he fit in the world. More to the point, where he fit with the people in his world. Now, he couldn’t even begin to comprehend just how wrong he had been.

Jensen brushed by him as he headed for the door and an ache like fire rolled though Jared’s bones. Jared stomped on that feeling until it turned to dust under his feet. Jensen paused in the doorway, casual as can be, and tossed off his parting shot like the threat it was. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

…  
…

Jared jumped as a paper bag full of grease dropped onto the table in front of him. They had stopped at a picnic area just off the highway in northern Arizona for lunch. Of course, Jared was using the time to wallow in self pity. And absolutely not staring at Jensen. Really.

Pulling the bag closer, he nodded his thanks at Chris.

“You should eat something.”

Inspecting the contents, he half-heartedly selected a cheeseburger. It tasted like ash.

Pity party? Table for one.

“Why do you care?”

“Because contrary to recent events,” Sophia came up beside Chris, “we do care about you.”

Jared stared at the twins. “I’m finding it hard to believe that anyone does at this point.”

Balling up the wrapper, he tossed it towards the garbage cans lining the area and missed by a mile. Some days, a person just shouldn’t get out of bed.

“You didn’t actually think he felt something for you?”

Every muscle in Jared’s shoulders tense as he felt Adrianne hovering behind his back. As much as he didn’t want to, his gaze jumped to Jensen’s and he found him staring right back.

Adrianne sat on the picnic table, her hip level with Jared’s chest, and leaned in close to his face. “You were an assignment. You’ve never even met the real Jensen.”

Sitting back, she snagged a handful of fries from the bag and tapped Jared’s chin. “That sweet little kitty you knew doesn’t exist. He,” she tossed her head in Jensen’s direction, “will rip your throat out in a second. Though, I gotta say, it’s been a complete riot watching you fall for his bullshit all these years.”

Jared stood and shoved Adrianne to the ground. Before she could get back up and reach for him, Jensen had grabbed her and hauled her toward their SUV.

Super spy, ninja skills. That had to have been ten feet Jensen had covered in under a second.

“What a bitch.”

Jared slowly sat back down and pushed his burger aside. Sophia’s hands came down on his and he looked up at her, his eyes clouded with tears that he impatiently wiped away. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

Sophia held one of his hands and patted at it like a grandmother would. “You got played. And from what I hear, by one of the best. He’s so far up the food chain, you never stood a chance.”

“Question is, why?” Chris mused.

Jared stared at the people he used to think of as his best friends. Even now, after everything, they were still here. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you guys.”

Chris looked around and then sighed, dropping his hand onto theirs. Jared felt a team cheer coming on. “From now on, we change that.”

Jared inched closer and they all bent their heads in a circle.

A week ago, the idea of being on the road, staying in motels, and eating all their meals at diners had sounded exciting. In just a few days, it had become monotonous. Genevieve and Misha were curled up on the pool furniture at yet another motel off the highway; Jared had spent the last twenty minutes trying to convince them to go home. So far? Not going well.

“So it would make sense if you both took the next Greyhound back.”

It was a speech that was, frankly, starting to get on his nerves. Genevieve stared up at him, all soulful eyes and sincere smile, and said, “Jared, you’re my future. I go where you go.”

Jared ran his hands through his hair, frustrated beyond the telling, and decided to try to appeal to Misha instead.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Jared’s head jerked at the sound of Jensen’s voice.

A growl sounded to his left. He would have had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice the animosity between Jensen and Genevieve. Seriously, had everybody known except him?

Jensen stared pointedly at Genevieve. “Alone.”

With a bored shrug and a flounce in her step, Genevieve stood to leave, but not before kissing Jared to within an inch of his life. Jared rubbed at his bottom lip, watching as she linked one elbow through the curve of Misha’s arm, leading him away and elbowing Jensen with her free one on her way by.

Jensen watched her go and rubbed his side where her elbow had connected.

“I really doubt that hurt.”

Jensen dropped his hand and sat in the now unoccupied chair. “Well, I have to give her something.”

“Why?”

“Because I had you first.”

“Not what I meant.”

Jensen ignored the response in favour of watching the water ripple across the surface of the pool.

Jared blew out a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding and slumped back in his seat. “So this is who you are?”

“An asshole?” Jensen shifted in his seat and Jared watched as his eyes skimmed his chest and drifted lower with a less-than-kind smile on his lips. “Pretty much.”

Jared huffed a laugh without any humour in it. “Whatever, I’m out of here.”

“Wait. I wanted to make a deal with you.”

Jared was already two steps towards his room; another ten and he would be safely behind the door. He was absolutely not going to hang around and play “let’s make a deal” with his asshole of an ex-boyfriend. He was stronger than that. He was his own man. He was—

“What kind of deal?”

Dammit!

“Take her and find another tribe. Anywhere. Just go.”

All this time, he had assumed Jensen was jealous of Genevieve; counted on it, played it for all it was worth. But that couldn’t be the case if Jensen was so willing to send Jared off with her. He felt mind-numbingly stupid about pretty much every idea of Jensen he’d ever had. “And the others?”

Jared had to concede that Jensen’s answering tone was compassionate, even though his words were anything but. “I have to bring someone back. A Nefertem killer would be enough.”

Jared had been holding out hope. Hope that somehow, at the end of this, he would still get to have Jensen. Hope that after everything was said and done, Jensen would turn to him and say ”Just kidding.” It was a stupid idea plucked out of the heart of a stupid teenage boy. Jared quietly put the last four years away in a box and labeled it “Do Not Touch.” Adrianne was right; he was not dealing with the Jensen he knew. “Did you plan this?”

Judging by the stricken look Jensen quickly tried to hide, he must have noticed that something had been irreparably damaged. Jared idly wondered what his face looked like right now. Jensen stood and faced the pool and Jared watched, detached but intrigued, as Jensen flipped some inner switch that took him from cool indifference to damn near glacial. “Sometimes you have to make your own destiny.”

Jared just shook his head in awe. “You really are a son of a bitch.”

Jensen smiled back over his shoulder; the sight scared the crap out of Jared. “If I was, I wouldn’t be giving you an out.”

“The only people I have left are Chris and Sophia. I’m not going to throw them under the bus again. Especially not for you.”

Jensen slowly walked to Jared, his hands casually in his pockets as if he was just heading towards his room. They were equally aware of the space between them. He stopped inches away and Jared felt the exhale of breath on his face when Jensen spoke. “Suit yourself.” Jensen lifted one hand and they both watched it hover over Jared’s chest before Jensen shoved it back in his pocket and continued past.

“Can you do it?” Jared called after him.

Jensen stopped but didn’t turn around. “What?”

“Are you going to be able to turn us over to her, knowing she’ll probably kill us? Can you do that? To me?”

Jared watched the rise and fall of Jensen’s shoulders as he took a deep breath before turning his head just enough for Jared to see his profile. “Yes.”

Jared slammed the lid down on the box and locked it tight.

…  
…

Jared pretended to sleep, his head propped against the window of the truck as it flew through Arizona. He could see the SUV, full of Nefertem as well as Sophia and Chris, in front of them. Genevieve was sprawled across the back seat with him, her head pillowed in his lap while Jensen drove. Jared studiously ignored Misha’s humming.

This had not been his idea; he’d been overruled on all fronts. The Nefertem refused to let them go alone and his friends decided it would be easier to get in to see Osiris with a guard detail.

He really wanted as many miles as possible between him and Jensen.

He wanted as many miles as possible between him and all of them, if he was being honest. He’d spent most of the night on a bench outside the motel room, just trying to get a handle on everything, but all he’d achieved was a migraine and stomach ache. Everyone he cared about had turned on him in varying degrees. His family was a mess; his brother and sister had left him behind, his momma had lied to him for possibly his whole life and he still wasn’t really sure about what. His best friends might have hated him for years, even if they were willing to put that behind them now. His boyfriend had kicked him the face and promised to kill him. Those were not things to paste a smile over.

How the hell had he missed all this? So he could be selfish. He was eighteen, for fuck’s sake, it was expected. But he’d never considered himself stupid, and that was pretty much how he was feeling. Stupid and used.

Jared sighed and shifted on the bench seat. Genevieve snuffled and relaxed back into sleep. At least he still had her.

He didn’t love her. If the last few days had taught him anything, it was that he had to be truthful with himself, because no one else was going to be. It would be easy to pretend he loved her; hell, he wanted to feel that way, but it was blazing right behind his eyes every time he kissed her that she was not who, or what, he wanted. Jared’s eyes flicked to the rear view mirror and for just a moment, he let all the hurt and betrayal pour out of him and into the the person staring back.

For a moment, Jensen let him. For just a second, his eyes were Jared’s again, the same look he’d always given him: fond, exasperated, and something else that Jared thought he’d known. Thought was love.

A muscle in Jensen’s cheek twitched and he slammed the door on it all. The queen’s consort stared back at Jared, begging the question: Which one was real?

Jared looked back out the window and laid his hand on Genevieve’s head, stroking her hair. There were too many questions in his mind and not nearly enough answers. He tried to focus on the important ones and not the train wreck his personal relationships had turned into. First and foremost, what did Bastet want with his sister? And what did Jeff know, and why had he taken so many others with him? Jared could reason that one out: There was safety in numbers and it was easier to hide one among many; it was what Jared would have done. But that didn’t answer the question of why Bastet was so focused on them. She had more than enough power, and they were pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. There was something completely off about the whole thing, and Jared didn’t know how to even begin to contemplate the reason. He did know one thing, though: there was no way in hell he was going into hiding. He’d get as much info as he could from Jeff and then he’d take the fight back to its source. Back to Bastet.

A flicker of movement on the side of the road vaguely registered in his tangled mind. Before he could give it much thought, the truck slammed into something solid. There was a moment of time suspension as his brain coughed up what had happened, even if it seemed impossible; a person had stepped between the two speeding vehicles and lifted the truck right off the road.

Time went screaming faster as all the truck’s occupants slammed forward in their seats. Jared looked into the face of the person holding up thousands of pounds of metal; before anyone could blink, the vehicle was flying through the air. He heard the screech of tires but couldn’t tell if it was the other car turning around or the vehicle he was in sliding on its side across the highway.

Genevieve was screaming and Jared thought for a second about covering her mouth. The door next to him was ripped from its hinges and Jared found himself staring at…something. It was human-shaped, at least, but the similarities stopped there. The whole being was covered with deep gold scales, and where there should have been hair, a ridge of scales jutted off its cheekbones like a cobra’s hood. Jared was dumfounded as its eyes blinked sideways like a lizard’s.

Its hands pulled him out of the truck and Jared batted ineffectively at the creature. Jensen and Adrianne screamed at each other, something about Wadjet the snake god, but he was a bit too busy at the moment to pay too much attention.

The creature seemed to be trying to talk to Jensen, but he couldn’t tell what it was saying because its forked tongue warped its speech patterns. Not that Jared gave a shit about conversation while he was staring down multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The thing reared its head back and Jared kept struggling. He’d seen that move before; it was what happened right before a rattler swallowed a mouse. Something inside him lit up like the fourth of July, tiny sparks of current running through his veins, and though he hadn’t thought it possible, the creature’s face registered shock as white arcs of electricity sparked off his fingertips. Jared stared at his hands and back at the snake creature; he was hard pressed to figure who was more surprised. There was a loud bang; the thing shook and its back bowed at an impossible angle. After a few more sharp pings, Jared dimly realized someone was shooting at it. Him. It. Who the hell knew anymore?

The snake man crumbled to the ground and bled red; according to every comic book he’d ever read, it should have been green. Something in his mind found that hilarious; he couldn’t stop giggling like a child. He was pretty sure he needed to lie down.

“What was it saying?”

“Did it bite you?”

“Jared?”

Jared couldn’t do much more than stare at Jensen, shaking his shoulders, as everyone’s voices blended together around him.

“Ameny,” Jared croaked.

Jensen pulled his hands back and took a step away. “What?”

Misha crawled over the backseat of the truck and came to a crouch beside Jared, examining his hands.

“He said Ameny.” Jared gulped in a deep breath of air and tried again. “It said Ameny.”

With the fear and reverence only an Egyptian could hold for the title, everyone took a step back. Except for Misha, who was too busy turning Jared’s hand over in his and staring into his eyes with intense scrutiny.

It was Adrianne who broke the silence. “What does that mean?”

Jared snatched his hands back from Misha. Fine. If they weren’t going to let him have his little breakdown in peace, then they deserved what was coming. “Who cares!” he screamed. “What the fuck was that thing?”

“That was what happens when Bastet and Wadjet get freaky.”

Jared looked over at Chad, who had run over from the other car and was now gasping for breath and waving a gun above his head. Jared stared at the gun for a moment and then back at the snake. For some reason, now that he knew Chad had been wielding the weapon, he was reassured that the aim hadn’t been intended for him. If it had been Adrianne…

There were way too many guns around these days.

“I thought Wadjet was a woman,” he heard Chris whisper to Sophia.

Chad composed himself by crossing his arms over his head and spinning back and forth in little half circles. Adrenaline rush was apparently not his thing. “She is. Kind of.”

Sophia poked Chad in the stomach. “Well how do two women make little snake babies?”

Rubbing at the spot she’d touched, Chad lay his hand on her shoulder and Jared was baffled by how he managed to look earnest and superior in the same expression. “When I say ‘Bastet,’ I mean more along the lines of a male Nefertem. He sleeps with Wadjet, and then their kids…”

Sophia wrinkled her nose. “Oh, that’s just… A snake… Really? Ew.”

Done with his lecture, Chad puffed his chest out and swept his arms wide. “We have two problems here, guys.”

Jared rolled his eyes. There would have to be a whole lot of massacres before Chad became the leader he was pretending to be.

“One.” He spun the gun on his finger. “I’m out of bullets.”

Jensen smacked him in the back of the head. “How many times did you shoot it?”

Chad dropped his chin and toed at the pavement. Jensen kicked the body over and looked back at Chad. “Wasn’t the chest wound enough?”

Chad pointed with his gun. “I was aiming for its head.” He threw up his hands. “I missed. A lot.”

Jensen closed his eyes; Jared could see the strain of leadership pulling at his muscles. “What’s the second thing?”

Chad pointed back towards the SUV. “We only have enough seatbelts for seven people.”

Jared was pretty sure Adrianne was going to kill Chad as she chased him back towards the SUV. Shaking his head, he looked down at the body and then out at the miles of desert surrounding them. “I’d say we have more than two problems.”

Jensen nodded and toed the body.

“If the goddess is sending one of these, then she doesn’t trust us to get the job done.”

Okay. That wasn’t really his problem.

The comment had been made low enough that Jared was pretty sure it was meant for his ears only, but given their audience, Jensen should have known better. Jared jumped when Adrianne smashed her fist into the side of the SUV. “Goddammit, Jensen! I told you we should have finished this days ago. This is on you now.”

It took Jared a lot longer to get up off the ground than it taken to get down there. He was getting tired of being the one getting all the shit-kicking lately. But, someone had to deal with the latest mess, and no one else seemed to be willing to—

Genevieve shoved her way past Jared and crowded into Jensen’s space, fury in her eyes. The top of her head barely reached his chest. “What does that mean? What does she mean? What, exactly, was your mission, Jensen?”

Jensen rolled his eyes and pushed her back like she was nothing more than an exuberant puppy. “We were supposed to find you and the others and bring you home.”

“What else,” Genevieve ground out through her teeth.

Jensen sighed, his thumbnails digging crescents into the space between his eyes . “We were supposed to…neutralize any conflicting parties.” Up until the last few days, Jared had never seen him make that gesture, and he was disproportionally pleased to discover he’d found Jensen’s stress tell.

Jared pulled Genevieve under his arm. “Don’t sugar coat it now. You were sent to kill us.”

Chad stuck his hand up. “But we didn’t, and now we’re just as screwed as you. So at this point, we’re actually just one big happy family.”

Seven pairs of eyes turned to stare at Chad, who took the intense scrutiny with his usual aplomb. “Anyone else hungry? I could eat.”

…  
…

“Why are we stopping?”

Jensen threw the SUV into park and glared at Jared in the rear view mirror. “Because we’re tired. We’re still over twenty hours from LA, and if I have to spend one more minute crammed in this vehicle with all of you, someone’s gonna die.” Jared looked into the backseat where Adrianne looked ready to carve Misha up; next to her, Sophia had Chad’s thumb bent back to his wrist. He didn’t want to contemplate what the other three were doing. The vehicle was really not meant for eight.

Unwilling to give an inch, Jared glared through the windshield at the gambrel-roofed building Jensen had stopped in front of. “So a pit stop at Dairy Queen is going to fix that.”

“You got a better idea?”

“Fine.”

Twenty minutes later, ice cream in hand, he could admit that he might feel a tiny bit better, kind of. The girls were trying to bond with Adrianne; a fashion magazine was open between them and Sophia was pointing to a picture. Adrianne was having none of it, though; in fact, she hadn’t removed her phone from her ear for more than twenty seconds to acknowledge their attempt at socialization. Chris sat on the sidewalk, ignoring them all. Misha had crammed himself into a kiddie ride train built for someone significantly smaller than himself and was dumping quarters into it. Jensen was eating an ice cream cone and it was pissing Jared right the hell off. He was mature now. He would not, under any circumstances, be unreasonably turned on by the sight of Jensen licking an _ice cream cone._ The guy had just had to pick vanilla. He was pretty sure Jensen was fucking with him.

Jared turned his back on the display and perused the parking lot for the last member of their little circle. Where the hell was Chad? And—

“Where the fuck is our car?”

A monstrosity of truly epic proportion was taking up the space the SUV had been parked in. The vehicle resembled what would happen if a school bus and an RV spawned the world’s ugliest compound auto; the word “Wanderlodge” was etched in detailed script on the front bumper, lending credence to his theory that it was some kind of RV. Someone had had the audacity to paint birds and rainbows and peace signs on the windows to hide the interior; the delightful moniker “shaggin waggin” was painted in purple along the side and screamed “redneck” so loudly that Jared was surprised there wasn’t a cowboy hat nestled on top. The undercoat was chartreuse and he was pretty sure that if the thing had been clean, lime green polka dots would have been visible on the panelling. Jared glanced underneath to see if it had, in fact, parked on top of their car.

The door slid open and Chad bounded out with a big shit-eating grin on his face.

Jared took a step to the left when Jensen busted past him and hauled Chad the rest of the way down the steps. Jared smirked and licked his ice cream. Sometimes, it sucked to be the boss. Jensen’s fists shook, wrapped up in Chad’s shirt, as he took a steadying breath before he spat in Chad’s face: “Where is the car, Chad?”

“Irene and Max agreed to trade straight across for the SUV. Isn’t it cool?” Chad waved at a couple across the parking lot fastening luggage onto the top of the SUV.

“You traded our car for…this?” Jensen was slowly twisting the collar of Chad’s t-shirt into a noose.

“Yeah. It seats all of us and it has a few beds in the back. I figure we’re gonna run out of money soon, and we still have a long way to go. Plus it has a shower and a stove. No more motels. Also, Bastet would never think to look for us in this.” Chad rushed through his explanation and finished up with a triumphant, albeit shaky, grin.

Jensen was as purple as the lettering on the bus. “Chad.” He looked at the others and then back at the bus. “That was kind of smart.”

Chad puffed his chest up and preened a little bit. “I know, right?”

With a considerable amount of reluctance, they all climbed into the bus; Chad had loaded their bags on at some point. It was better on the inside, but not by much; all Jared could smell was patchouli. He slid into a booth surrounding what he supposed was the kitchen table, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back.

Chad had commandeered the driver’s seat and Jared heard the door shut behind the last of the passengers.

“Oh, you guys haven’t heard the best part,” Chad called. Moments later, a horn assaulted his ears and Jared dropped his head to table as he recognized the soundtrack from “The Dukes of Hazard.” It was official: He was in Hell.

Los Angeles, California, 2012 AD

The church of Scientology was…weird. Everyone wore disgustingly happy smiles, but they all had a slightly manic look in their eyes. Jared avoided touching anything on the grounds it could be contagious.

Everyone had gathered together under the directory that took up most of one lobby wall. According the business card, they were looking for a Mark Sheppard, and it looked like his office was on the top floor. Misha kept trying to sink to his knees every time he looked at the name and Jared occupied himself with hauling the smaller man off the floor. Anything to distract from the electrical current that had started sparking through his veins the closer they got to the church. The car accident must have knocked something loose in his brain. When all this was over, he was going to have to find an MRI scanner.

Jensen, Jared, Misha, Chris, and Sophia shuffled into the elevator and closed the door quickly on anyone who wanted to come in after, leaving Chad, Adrianne and Genevieve to take the next one.

Disembarking on the top floor, Jared quietly picked his jaw off the ground. A long hallway stretched out before them, walls of gleaming mahogany and recessed lighting leading to a glass office door tucked tastefully at the end. _Somebody_ had an obscene amount of money. The elevator door dinged pleasantly behind them and the others crowded off in a huddle.

“Dude, I just saw John Travolta.” Chad was practically vibrating out of skin.

Jensen pinched the bridge of his nose. “Adrianne, please take the kids out to play.” Jared was beginning to worry that there would be a permanent indent if Jensen didn’t stop that.

Adrianne waved her hand around the hall. “Where am I supposed to go?”

“The lobby? Cafeteria? I don’t care.”

“Who died and made you boss?”

Jensen lowered his hand and looked at her impassively. “Justin.”

Adrianne smirked and even Jared could tell that Justin’s demise wasn’t paining any of them. “Fine. But if Osiris kicks your ass, don’t come crying to me.”

“I won’t,” Jensen called out as Adrianne, Chad, and Misha entered the elevator. ”And don’t drink anything, there might be something in the water.”

Adrianne flipped him the bird as the doors closed.

The glass door opened easily and they shuffled into the office, taking seats on the leather couches provided.

They had been sitting quietly for twenty minutes when the redhead behind the big desk that dominated the reception area finally spoke to them.

“Name?”

Since their arrival, she had been talking into a headset; they had started to doze, lulled by the light music playing in the background and her monotonous voice.

She snapped her fingers at them without so much as a glance in their direction and started typing again. “Name?”

Chris took the proverbial bull by the horns and strutted up to the desk, all bluster and old-fashioned cowboy charisma. “Hi, darlin’; name’s Christian, and I have an appointment with Mr. Sheppard.”

She barely spared him a glance. “No, you don’t. Goodbye.”

Jensen tried next. “Hi…Danneel,” he said, lifting her nameplate. “I’m sure we just got the date wrong. But we’ve come all this way, couldn’t you just slip us in?”

She paused in her typing long enough to snatch the nameplate out of his fingers. “Does that usually work for you?”

At Jensen’s perplexed look, she huffed. “Slipping it in, does that work for you.”

Jensen glanced back and Jared had to pinch his nose closed to mask the snort threatening to erupt. “No ma’am?”

“You are neither charming enough nor attractive enough for that to have any effect on me. The answer is still no.”

Well, this was going nowhere fast. As much as he would have enjoyed watching pretty women eviscerate Jensen’s ego all day, they had things to do. Jared pushed Jensen aside and leaned over the desk.

“Look, Danneel. Can I call you Danneel? We really need to see him, could you just tell him we’re here.”

The redhead removed her hands from the keyboard and stood up. She was tiny, but the aura of power surrounding her suggested the stature of King Kong. “No I can’t interrupt him just because you think you’re important. News flash: you’re not. Now leave before I call security.”

She may have been a scary bitch, but Jared was down to his last straw. “Listen, lady, he’s expecting us and he’s going to be some kind of pissed at you if he finds out you threw us out.”

Danneel set one perfectly manicured hand on his arm; a chill seeped through every bone in his body. He tore his eyes from her grip to her smirking face.

“You do not have an appointment, and do you know how I know you don’t have an appointment, Jared?”

Jared shook his head slowly, unable to look away from her eyes that had started to swirl with a kaleidoscope of colours. It was like staring into a vortex or the great abyss. Neither of which made him feel comfortable about any part of her touching him. “Because I’d know if you were on the list.”

Jared nodded before he stumbled away from the desk and fell onto the couch.

Danneel slowly sat down and went back to typing as though they weren’t there.

Jared leaned over and whispered into Chris’s ear. “That’s Mahaf.”

Chris shrugged Jared’s head off his shoulder. “Who?”

Sophia was pale as she cuffed her brother. “The ferryman. Woman. Person.” Sophia looked confused.

Chris’s eyes opened comically wide. “The actual… Wow.”

Jared glanced back at Danneel and slid to edge of the couch. “Could we just get out of here? She’s never going to let us past.”

“Oh, fuck that!” Genevieve stood up, smoothing down her hair. “We didn’t come all this way for Satan’s bitch to hold us up now. I want to go home, and if the only thing standing in my way is her…”

Genevieve snapped her jaw tight and charged the desk, ripping the cord out of Danneel’s headset. “Look, bitch, you’re going to march your ass in there right now, and—”

Jared was braced for his wife’s organs to be sprayed all over the shiny wood walls when a man stepped out from behind a door next to the desk. “Jared. You’re early.”

They all stared at the dark man standing in the doorway of the office they were trying to get into. He was shorter than mythology had led them to believe. Also, no horns. Still, something about him screamed “scary mother fucker”; Jared felt a little give in his knees and cursed Misha. “Osiris… Mr. Sheppard?”

He waved a hand. “Please, call me Mark. Come on in.”

With a slight hitch in their steps, they all gave the reception desk a wide berth as they headed for the office. Mark put up a hand before Genevieve could walk in.

“Not you.”

“But…” Genevieve fell silent. What could she say?

“Danni, honey, get this lovely lady a beverage; she must be parched after her trip.”

Danneel stood slowly, looking less than amused. “Yes, sir.”

Mark nodded and slapped her ass on the way by.

They all heard the “Fucker” she not-so-subtly muttered under her breath.

Mark smiled at Genevieve. “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” He leaned forward. “She’s a spitter.”

Closing the door in her face, Osiris turned and faced the remaining members of the group. Had he been paying attention, he would have borne witness to the entertaining game of musical chairs they had engaged in, all trying to fit onto the loveseat set furthest away from the wide oak desk of all the furniture. Jared and Jensen had lost and were uncomfortably perched in the two chairs that brought them mere inches from the desk’s edge.

“Coffee, tea?”

Jared sat forward in his seat, dangerously close to falling off the edge. “No, thank you.”

“Carbonated soda pop?”

“No. Sir. We need—”

Osiris cut him off with a sharp wave of his hand and they all stared as he opened a mini-fridge and removed a Pepsi. Taking a long gulp, he smiled at the bottle and replaced the lid before placing it back in the fridge. Dozens of half-drunk bottles littered the shelves.

He walked back to his desk and sat, shuffling his papers, before he leaned forward and rested his chin on his steepled fingers. “So. Lovely to meet you all. What can I do for you?”

Jared wondered if that was the standard greeting for gods; looking to his companions, he sighed when no one else seemed willing to talk.

Bull. Horns.

“We just need to know if you have my brother and sister…sir.”

Osiris closed his eyes for a moment. “Nope. Don’t see them. Is that all?”

Chris piped up from the back. “Wait, don’t you need to touch Jared or something? Ra lit him up like the fourth of July.”

Jared glared at Chris; he knew what it felt like when Ra had touched him, but he hadn’t realized the fire had been apparent on the outside. “You weren’t even there!”

“Pfft. That old game. He wasn’t looking for your brother; he was scouring your soul. Painful and completely unnecessary. He can be such a hack when he’s in a mood.”

Jared sat up straight. There were so many things wrong with that statement, but now was not the time to be picky. “So he didn’t even look?”

Osiris leaned forward and patted Jared’s head. Or, he leaned over the desk, pulled Jared forward by his shirt collar, and then patted his head. Either way, Jared had the vague sense that it was meant to be a reassuring gesture. “Oh, I’m sure he looked. I’m also sure he had no intention of telling you whether he found them or not.”

Jared glanced sideways at Jensen, a silent plea to somehow get the god to quit touching him which was summarily ignored. “Why? How do you know that?” It wasn’t nearly as invasive as Ra had been, but someone was definitely combing through his mind, pausing here and there like his memories were an old paperback to be read and discarded. Jared had the distinct impression he was in the middle of two very different conversations.

“He sent you here, didn’t he? Chances are he made a deal with someone. Us Gods are always wheeling and dealing for this or that. The politics are quite draining some days.” Osiris glanced around at the group like he was expecting sympathy and received nothing but blank stares. “Well, never mind that. Not really your concern right now. Have you ever considered careers as actors? I could see great things for you two, maybe a buddy movie… I think I have a script here somewhere.” Osiris let Jared go to shuffle pages around on his desk; lifting one, he grinned triumphantly only for his smile to fall when he noticed all the glares directed back at him.

“Oh, for…” Osiris stood and came around the desk, leaning back against it and crossing his arms over his chest. “Look. I’m not allowed to help you. I made a deal, too. I can tell you truthfully, though, that they are not in the Underworld, and I can also tell you that there is someone who will help you.”

Sophia piped up from her place behind Chris’s shoulder: “Why should we believe you?”

Osiris spread his hands at his sides. “What other choice do you have?”

“Okay.” Jared sighed; he had a pretty good idea of what was coming. “Who’s next?”

“Isis.”

Jensen finally found the voice Jared had started to suspect had left with the guy’s balls. Osiris was just a God; Jensen dealt with one daily. He needed to get a grip.

“Isis? The mother of all? Why would she help us?”

Osiris sized Jensen up and, judging by the slight wrinkle of his mouth, found the Nefertem leader lacking. “She’s a little pissed at the rest of the Ennead, so I’m fairly certain she wouldn’t have made any deals with anyone. “

It wasn’t that Jared really wanted the god’s attention back, but as they were running in circles at the moment, he tapped Osiris lightly on the knee. “How do you know that?”

“I can’t divulge too many of the details. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” He winked.

Jared shook his head. “I don’t want to know. Where is she?”

“Canada. Last I checked.”

“Last you… Isn’t she your wife?”

“I thought she was his sister,” Chris whispered, about as subtle as Pride parade.

“Wife…sister… Tomato, tomäto.” Osiris grinned wolfishly.

Chris and Sophia shifted away from each other.

Jensen raised a hand. “Canada’s not a really convenient place to search.”

Chris looked confused. “It’s Canada. Doesn’t everyone know everyone else?”

Osiris rolled his eyes. “Americans.” He reached into the clutter on his desk and produced a small white card. “Ah. Here.”

“What is with all the business cards?” Chris asked. “Was there a sale?”

“Yes, actually. We found an amazing printer who gave us a fantastic deal; buy five thousand cards and get—”

At their incomprehensible stares, he cut himself off and shrugged. “Anyway. Good luck; I’ll be seeing you. If you change your mind about the acting thing, you just give me a call.”

…  
…

“So. Plan B?”

One more diner to add to Jared’s list of eclectic little stops along the way had supplied their dinner, and now they were all jammed around the table on the bus, trying to determine their next move. Jared stuffed a fry in his mouth and spoke around it. “That _was_ Plan B.”

Adrianne propped her arm on the back of the seat and lay her head in the crook of her elbow. “I think we’re on Plan F for ‘failure.’”

Misha waved the business card around the table. “Isis.”

“And how in the fuck are we supposed to find the mother of all gods?” Jensen was getting a wee bit bitchy.

“She’s on an island, according to this.”

“Well isn’t that convenient. Are we going to swim there?” Jensen snapped. Maybe more than a wee bit.

Chad spread a map out on the table, tracing some lines with his finger. “No, there’s a ferry. If we head due north, we can be there in two days, tops.”

“Where are we going?” Jensen squinted at the map. “Victoria?”

Jared ignored them all, staring out the window as the bus crept further into the night. Further and further away from home and any semblance of normalcy.

Sunrise broke over the Seattle skyline and soon they were waiting in line to cross the border into Canada. Why it was taking three hours was a mystery. How many people could really be that interested in going to Canada?

Jared threw down the map he’d been reading and stretched his arms, his palms flat against the ceiling of the bus. Gen and Misha were asleep and Adrianne was watching a movie, leaving Chad to navigate the border and the city beyond it with Chris and Sophia as his GPS.

Stumbling down the aisle, Jared pushed aside the curtain separating the beds from the common area and did his best to ignore Jensen sleeping on the only bed available. Tucking into the tiny bathroom, he made do in the confined space and used a cloth to wipe off his face with some of their limited supply of running water.

He had barely managed to get the accordion plastic masquerading as a door shut when he was shoved up against the wall. The heat of the highway beneath them radiated through the walls of the bus, but he was more concerned with the hot body pressed up behind him. Jared was mesmerized by the patterns the light made through the blinds on Jensen’s hand next to his face. “What do you want?”

“I thought that was obvious,” Jensen said, grinding against Jared’s ass.

“We don’t do this anymore.”

“We’ve never done this.”

Jared closed his eyes. “Why now? Because you’re not her favourite anymore? Because now you’re just as dispensable as I am?”

“Because I never had the chance? I might never get another one? Does it matter?”

Jared turned in the circle of Jensen’s arms and shoved him halfway to the bed, his lungs heaving in air. He wanted, in equal parts, to fuck Jensen blind and kick his ass. He had no idea which was the right decision and didn’t really giving a shit either way; he opened his jeans and toed off his shoes.

Seeing the surrender in Jared’s eyes, Jensen pulled his shirt off and shoved Jared the remaining steps to the bed. Jared landed flat on his back, air forced from his lips with a sharp gasp. There was no tenderness here, none of the teasing or soft touches that made up their history. It was tantamount to two strangers fucking, the only way it could be anymore.

Jared stared at the ceiling as Jensen ripped his pants off and tossed them over his shoulder, his only contribution a slight lift of his hips. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to do this while he was looking Jensen in the eye. For years, he’d begged Jensen for this, craved the intimacy that only this act could provide. Now that he was finally getting what he wanted, he felt…broken. Jared jumped when slick fingers wrapped around his cock; his fingers curled against the sheets and he held his breath, waiting for the inevitable invasion of his body.

“Open your eyes.”

Jared hadn’t even realized they were shut until Jensen barked the command. He turned his head to the side, refusing to give an inch; his spine arched when Jensen impaled himself on Jared in one brutal downward stroke. Jared’s eyes flew open in shock; for one, that was not how he had expected this to go, and for another, that had to have hurt.

“You never do as you’re told.” Jensen’s voice echoed with pain and something neither of them wanted to examine too closely.

Jared’s fingers scrambled for purchase on Jensen’s hips, locking tight and holding him place when Jensen started to shift back up. The slightest movement would end this long before Jared was ready for it to be over. Jensen toppled forward like his strings had been cut. He slid his hands under Jared’s back, curling his fingers over Jared’s shoulders, and rubbed his lips over Jared’s ear. “Shh. Easy.” Jared wasn’t sure if the sentiment was meant for him.

“Jen.” A tear crept down Jared’s cheek, but he had no idea which of them had spilled it. He was pretty sure even the pain of death would not have gotten either of them to admit to it. Regardless, Jared’s heart split wide open.

“I always wanted this, wanted you. Just for today, Jared, just for now, let us have it.”

The words were dropped softly into his ear. They weren’t from the Jensen he knew, nor the one he’d seen lately; there was someone else glimmering just beneath the surface. A new someone that Jared was desperate to know. He had his doubts as to whether he’d get the chance. He didn’t know if he had the strength to care.

Jared nodded and brushed his lips against Jensen’s face. Jensen rocked back and fire shot through Jared’s body, coalescing in his spine; this was not going to take long at all. Given the current status of their relationship, there should have been biting and tearing, not this smooth glide of two bodies utterly focused on the same goal. The thought that most people didn’t get to have this drifted through Jared’s mind, but it was quickly swept away as Jensen’s teeth rode the edge of his neck. Jared felt Jensen, hard and leaking against his stomach, as their panting grew harsher and louder. He held Jensen’s face in his hands and stared into his eyes. There was something there, something new, but…

“It’s too late.”

Jared came to the sound of Jensen’s bitten-off howl into his neck. Not his teardrops after all.

…  
…

Between the Vancouver traffic, a few wrong turns, and the long lines, they’d barely managed to catch the last ferry of the day heading over to Vancouver Island. Everyone left the bus to wander around the passenger area before congregating on a group of benches that afforded a panoramic view of the ocean through the wall of windows protecting them from the elements.

Jared left the rest of them crowded into the seats and headed for the deck. He found a large metal box to sit on and stared out at the water as the mainland disappeared behind him.

“Hi.”

He jumped when Genevieve sat down next to him.

“Hey.”

She lifted his arm and curled up along his side. “It’s cold out here.”

Jared lightly kissed her forehead. “Yeah, it sure isn’t Texas.”

Genevieve snuggled closer. “I can’t wait to go home.”

“We’re going to find them, soon.” Jared glanced down at the top of Gen’s head. “You know I won’t stop until we do.”

He felt her sigh into his chest. “Jared… Just… Never mind.”

“What?” He rubbed his hands up her arms, trying to warm her.

“What if Isis can’t help us? What if we’re just chasing our tails? What then?”

Jared stiffened. “Then we’ll find someone who can. We can’t just give up. Gen, what if it was me? You’d keep looking for me.”

Genevieve rolled her face against his chest and curled closer to him. “It’s not the same.”

“Why?”

Genevieve sat up and put a foot of space between them. “For one, I wouldn’t take off to another country with a bunch of _cats._ Two, I’m your wife; it’s our job to look out for each other. Your brother sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting his time if it was the other way around.”

Jared grabbed for her, but gave up without a fight when she just shifted further away. “Why are you even here if that’s what you think?”

“Why do you think I’m here? Even if I think this is insane, I’ll follow you because you’re my future. You’re all I have.”

Jared shifted his eyes back to the water. Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten that without him and the security she’d imagined he offered for her future, she was alone. It wasn’t like she could meet someone else and move on; there was no such thing as divorce in Kebechet society. It was his job to protect her and keep her safe, and so far, he was doing a bang up job of that.

“You’re not going back.” It wasn’t a question, but Jared took it as one anyway.

“Of course I am.”

Genevieve shook her head sadly. “No. No, you’re not.” Jared spread his hands but didn’t reach for her when she got up and leaned against the railing running the length of the deck. She watched him for a moment, trying to piece something together in her mind. Jared wasn’t really prepared for the outcome. ”Gods, you are such a selfish asshole. You were never even going to try to love me, were you?”

“Gen. I...”

Genevieve threw her arms wide. “What’s wrong with me?”

Jared jumped up. “Nothing! You’re perfect, and beautiful, and—”

“Not Jensen.”

He wanted to deny that so badly that his teeth ached, but in the end, all he could offer up was a weak, “What?”

“You think I don’t see the way you look at him. I’m not an idiot. I’ve done everything I could to keep you apart for years, but he wouldn’t give up. Neither would you.”

Jared grabbed for her hands and held on, even when she tried to slap him away. She didn’t understand. She—

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Jensen and I. We. It wasn’t real.”

Genevieve squeezed his fingers to make him drop her hands, and she gripped his face. Jared avoided her eyes as long as possible until he couldn’t stand it anymore, watching her break with every word she spoke. “You’re so naïve. You two are never going to let each other go. Ever. If I can accept that, then you better start doing it, too.”

Nanaimo, British Columbia, 2012 AD

“What do you mean, we took the wrong ferry?” Jared was developing a squeak in his voice that he was worried meant the onset of a stroke.

“Well, they both leave from the same place; one goes to Victoria, and one goes…here.” Chad looked around at their surroundings and then back down at the map.

“You mean that idiot had a fifty-fifty shot of getting us on the right boat and he couldn’t even do that?” Chris screamed.

Chad punched the side of the van and took off towards a line of shops. Everyone had pushed past the point of amicable camaraderie and dived headfirst into potential bloodshed.

Sophia belted her brother in the arm. “Don’t be such a dick.”

Jared threw his arms up and slumped against the van, his face cradled in his hands.

“Why don’t we find somewhere to stay tonight and start fresh tomorrow?”

Jared glanced over his shoulder at Jensen. “Tomorrow? Why?”

“Well, it’s a few hours back down the coast to Victoria, and…we need a rest. All of us.”

Jared’s mind immediately went to the back of the bus. It was really not a good idea for him and Jensen to spend the night locked up in a confined space, alone or otherwise. “Where are we going to go?”

Adrianne stepped forward. “The kid in the gas station suggested a campground a few minutes from here.”

Jared glared at her. Just because he and Jensen on a horizontal surface was a bad idea didn’t mean he wanted to erase it from the realm of possibility, and it was so much easier to take his anger out on someone else. “So now you’re helping?”

Genevieve grabbed his arm. “Jared—”

“Whatever, I don’t care. Let’s go.”

…  
…

“Why are we slowing down?”

Chad gestured out the windshield as he pulled the bus over. “There’s a girl on the road.”

“And we’re stopping, why? The last time we ran into someone in the road, he tried to kill us.”

Chad stared at Jared in disbelief. “Dude, she’s hot.”

He got out and approached the small blonde standing in front of the bus. Jared leaned further forward in the passenger seat. Okay. She was kind of cute.

Seconds later, Chad was on his way back with the girl in tow. He jumped up onto the bus and held out his hand to help her climb the steps. “Guys, this is—”

“Isis,” Jensen said, standing up.

Chad shook his head. “No, she said her name was Alona.”

“Isis?” Jared squeaked. Misha was predictably prone on the floor in front of the goddess.

“Yes, honey.” The tone of her voice belied someone much older than her body implied. Which, when Jared thought about it, _duh._

He had a million things he wanted to ask her, but all he could manage was: “Why?”

Isis laughed. “Oh, I bet you ask that question a lot.”

There was a nod of assent from the rest of the group; Jared glared at them all. Crossing his arms, he slouched in his seat, not pouting. No matter what the protrusion of his bottom lip might lead others to believe.

Isis sat next to him and lifted his face to look in his eyes. A small light rose from her palm and engulfed his face; she smiled and breathed out. “I thought so.”

“Thought what? What is with you gods touching me with all this light and stuff? That needs to stop.” That damn electrical current was back. He was getting blood tests, an MRI, and an ophthalmological exam. He didn’t even know what that was, but he’d find a doctor willing to run an entire battery of tests if it was the last thing he did.

“You can’t tell me you haven’t figured out there’s something different about you, Jared.”

She seemed like a perfectly kind and gentle goddess. Jared was having none of that. “Listen, bitch, there’s nothing different about me.”

“You are the Ameny.”

Chris hummed. “Well, you have always been too tall.”

Jared stood up and shook her off. “You shut up. I’m just trying to find my brother, not start a war.”

Isis sat back and regarded him gently “Jared. You’re not starting a war.”

“But you just said— You know what, I’m sick of all this ‘gods’ shit. You’re all a bunch of useless hacks. You,” he poking his finger at her chest, “can go fuck yourself!”

Before he could blink, Jared found himself sliding down the wall at the back of the bus. He lay there as Isis crouched in front of him. “You should be more respectful. The next time you so much as raise your voice to me, I will shove my foot so far up your ass you’ll never find the heel… But, I understand.”

Jared pulled his legs up against his chest. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“I didn’t do anything. Ra unlocked it. I’m pretty sure that was an accident, which is probably why he sent you to Osiris. It’s common knowledge that the Ennead want the Ameny’s head on a chopping block. I should know; I helped draft the press release.”

“Why didn’t he kill me? Why don’t you?”

“Are you kidding, we’ve been waiting millennia for you to take Bastet down a few pegs.”

Jared sat up and pressed his forehead to his knees, his arms crossed over his ankles. “I don’t want to go to war.”

Isis carded her fingers through his hair. “Sweetie, you’re already in the war. You need to finish it.”

“How? I can’t just go kill a god.” Jared knew he was being petulant. He just didn’t care. “Two, even.”

“It’s your destiny.”

“I’m not…equipped.”

“You won’t even know what you’re capable of until you embrace your true nature.”

Jared stared at her. Why had he gotten stuck with the new age self help goddess? “I don’t know how.”

“You will. You have exactly what you need right under your nose.”

Jared glanced down at his shirt.

“No, you idiot, it’s inside you already. Little bits of power swimming around in there. Now get your butt off that floor and quit acting like a two-year-old before I open up a can of whoop-ass.”

Misha raised his hand. “I don’t think that term is actually relevant in modern vernacular anymore.”

Isis looked at him and Misha dropped to the floor, unconscious. Standing up, she slapped her hands together and headed for the front of the bus. “Move over, squinty, I’m driving.”

…  
…

This was…awkward.

Jared lay face down on a mat, naked, as Isis straddled his ass. Yes, she was attractive, but the longer this went on, the more he was assured that his hormones decidedly favoured a more masculine anatomy. Maybe specifically Jensen’s anatomy, but in any event, being naked with a girl perched on top of him and not even being remotely aroused was pretty embarrassing.

He wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, he didn’t want to offend Isis by reacting like the horny teenager he was while she was trying to unlock his latent abilities. On the other, he didn’t want to insult her by not being attracted at all. It was a conundrum.

Isis smacked him in the back of the head. “Concentrate, dammit. I don’t give a flying fig newton if you want me or not.”

Jared sighed and cradled his face on his arms. Right. Concentrate.

“On what?”

“There‘s a door in your mind that you need to open. Visualize the door.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Jared, I am going to string you up by your intestines in about two minutes if you can’t get your shit together.”

“Okay! Fine. Door. Visualizing.”

Jared closed his eyes and imagined a door. A large wooden door. It needed a key. An ancient brass key. On a rope. A rope made of braided leather. Like a whip. A whip was used to beat people. Paddles were used for the same thing. Paddles were used on bare asses. Jensen had a very nice bare ass.

Isis smacked him on the back of the head.

…  
…

Chad grinned. He was tallish; not as tall as Jared, of course, but he could be seen as a challenge. He stepped aside and Adrianne stepped forward. In two seconds, she’d smashed the heel of her hand into his nose and swept his feet out from under him. Combat training: not as much fun as the brochures might lead you to believe.

Jensen crouched down beside him. “She’s the best. Why did you think she was here?”

It had been days since they had checked into the campground, and so far, all he had to show for his time was bruised ribs and black eyes.

Sitting cross legged on a tree stump, Isis clapped her hands together. Chad had taken to calling her “Yoda” behind her back; Jared couldn’t say he disagreed. “You all have a purpose,” she said. “You, Kebechet, are his heart and council. You, Nefertem, are his strength and spirit. He is nothing without you. Everyone sit in a circle.”

Jared sat in the middle of the circle with his eyes closed. He cracked one eye open and winced when Misha glared at him. If they started to play Duck, Duck, Goose, he was leaving.

“Okay. I want all of you to center your thoughts. Push your soul out to Jared.”

This was stupid. No way in hell this was going to…

Jared’s head fell back. It was working. He felt all the tendrils of each person’s essence wrap around his body, lifting him. It was really freaking weird. In a recessed part of his mind, he knew he was standing, but he couldn’t say how he had gotten there. He felt heartbeats around him, rushes of air as bodies came close. He felt them all fall. Opening his eyes, he stared at the Nefertem slumped over around the circle.

“Whoa.”

“Okay, Keanu.” Isis pulled him away. “Let’s get the rest opened.”

…  
…

“Judgement light?”

“Yes, it’s—what? What’s with the face?”

Jared shrugged and shifted. “Nothing.” He peeked up at Isis from under his bangs. She had been drawing patterns on his back, but at his gaze, she stood and moved in front of him. Her arms were crossed and she looked every bit the mother figure of legend, right down to the tapping foot and arched eyebrow.

“It’s fine. I was just kind of hoping for something…less lame.”

“Like what? Laser beams from your eyes? Super strength? Gills?”

“No.” He huffed. “Maybe.”

Isis shook her head and came back to crouch behind him. “You’re not a comic book super hero. You’re an Egyptian legend, and we do not wear spandex. Ever.”

Jared nodded and tried not to flinch every time the brush touched his back. It tickled. “What are you doing back there, anyway?”

“I’m creating a…kind of like a portal. You obviously aren’t going to be able get there by yourself, and you’re running out of time.”

“A portal? In henna? What the fuck is going to come out of my back?”

“Nothing. Okay, not a portal. Forget portal. You know, this was so much easier before television. No one argued. It was all, ‘Yes Goddess, whatever you say, Goddess.’” She sighed. “It’s going to unlock the last of your abilities.”

“The judge-y light? Okay, fine, but it’s going to be hard to strike fear in the hearts of my enemies by telling them that I’m sitting over here in the corner quietly judging them.”

“You’re not going to—” Isis dug her fingernails into his shoulders and dropped her forehead onto his back like she was praying for patience.

“Once you learn how to control it, you’ll be able to find every nasty, evil thing a being has ever thought or done in their mind; that’s the judgement. The light gives you the power to burn it out of them. If they have more good, they’ll survive, but if the scales tip the other way…”

“How do I know if it worked?”

Isis slapped him on the back and Jared’s whole body locked up. He couldn’t see anything but a bright white flame; every soul in the world crashed against his mind. He saw every evil thought and deed everyone in the history of the world had ever committed. Jared scrabbled at his throat; he couldn’t breathe, it was too much—

The flames grew higher, and higher, and the world went black.

…  
…

“Dude. That is totally a porn star tattoo.”

“I swear to the gods, Chad, if you call me ‘dude’ one more time…”

Jared sat up and stared at Chad and Adrianne. He felt…off.

Chad grinned and shoved his shoulder. “You’re awake.”

Adrianne snorted. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. How are you feeling, Ameny?”

Jared glared at her. “Don’t call me that. I’m still me, and I, Jared, feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.”

Rolling off the bed, he headed for the mirror. He looked tired, but other than that, no different than before Isis had whammied him. He stared at his hands. There was an energy running under his fingertips. He couldn’t see it, but he felt it; closing his eyes, he concentrated on that and felt it roll over his body. It was warm. Like a hot shower on a cold day.

“Holy shit. You’re totally glowing.”

Jared spun around and looked at Chad, then down at his hands and chest. Sure enough, a white glow emanated from his skin. Jared sighed; he looked like a Christmas tree. No matter what Isis said, he was going to be the most lame-ass superhero ever. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the power back in until it was just left in his fingertips; he had a feeling he was going to be the king of electric shocks for a while.

“I told you to come get me when he woke up.”

Jared looked over at Jensen, who stood in the doorway. Jared slumped back against the dresser. He could kind of use a hug right now, but he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask. Jensen glanced at the others and then made the decision for him, crossing the room to gather Jared up in his arms and hold him.

Jared clung tight and laid his face against Jensen’s shoulders, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. It was too much. Hundreds of truly evil ideas were rushing around in his brain, and he had no idea how to make them stop. All he knew for sure was that there were some priests in Kansas that he had to visit, and it wasn’t going to be pretty for anyone.

He felt Jensen stiffen and glanced up inquiringly; Jensen tried to hide a shocked expression. Jared watched him for a moment and realized that Jensen’s gaze kept straying to the mirror behind him. He reached for a hand mirror that sat on the dresser; employing a trick his sister used to check the back of her hair, he had a perfect view of the reflection of his back. His jaw dropped.

“That’s not henna.”

Painted on his skin in what looked like permanent black ink was a tattoo spanning from shoulder to shoulder and halfway down his back. Long wings rode his shoulders, almost touching his neck; in the middle was an Ankh and beneath that were the heads of a jackal and a cat.

“Son of a bitch.“

“Totally porn star, right?”

Jared glared at Chad.

…  
…

Jared came around the corner of the bus and stood for a moment, watching Adrianne stand with her her face raised to the sun.

“I understand that Bastet has a female consort as well,” he said, coming up beside her. Her shrug was all the answer he needed. “I didn’t realize until this morning. You were always disappearing to use your phone. It wasn’t until the accident that you stopped, when Bastet threw you to the wolves...or jackals, I guess. Do you know where my brother is?”

Adrianne glanced sideways and dropped her shoulders. “Yes. I do.”

Jared nodded and looked out at the trees. His fingertips tingled, but he cut off the urge to touch her. “Bastet has them.”

Adrianne sighed. “You don’t understand what it’s like to be her beloved. I don’t know how Jensen was strong enough to… I guess the Ameny trumps the goddess, huh.”

“How far did they make it?”

“They didn’t get out of the city.”

Jared stared at the toe of his shoe.

“Did Jensen know?”

“Yes.”

Jared lifted his hand towards Adrianne’s face, judgement light sparking off his fingertips. Adrianne closed her eyes and leaned closer to him.

“Whoa there, Chewbacca. Hold up.”

Jared clenched his fist and turned towards Chad, who was bounding towards them like a puppy on speed.

Jared was…annoyed. “Chewbacca? Really?”

“Totally Chewbacca. Chris and Sophia can be Luke and Leia. It’s perfect.”

Jared stared incredulous. Some psychiatrist would make a fortune trying to unlock the secrets of how Chad’s brain worked. “What does that make you? An Ewok?”

“I’m Han Solo,” Chad said, puffing out his chest.

“How the hell…? Never mind.” Jared headed for the bus. He had some packing to do.

“You aren’t gonna ask who Jensen is?” There was something distinctly smug about the way Chad asked the question.

“Darth fucking Vader,” Jared shouted over his shoulder. Chad could take his smug little theories and shove them up his—

“No, man.” Chad came running up behind him. “Jensen can’t be Darth Vader. Did you even watch the movie?”

“Yes I watched the—” Jared took a deep calming breath. “Okay, Chad. Who is Jensen?”

“Lando Calrissian.” Chad stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels.

Jared rolled his eyes. “The guy who betrayed them all? Yeah, I can see that.”

“He also saved them all. Jared. You. Okay, it’s like this: You can’t see the big picture because you’re too close, but once you get some perspective, everything is going to make sense. Right now, you’re inside the map.”

“Inside the… Wait, is that a _Friends_ reference? Do you do anything but watch television?”

Chad dropped all pretence of friendliness and sobered instantly. “You have no idea what Jensen has done. For you.”

“I don’t have time to walk in anybody else’s shoes, Chad. Right now, I have to save my family, kill a few gods, and finish a war that’s been gods-knows-how-long in the making. If Jensen wants me to know where he’s at in this thing, then he can open up his big fat mouth and fucking telling me!”

Pissed off beyond telling, Jared shoved Chad aside.

The abrupt violence didn’t stop Chad from calling after him: “Misha’s the Ewok.”

…  
…

“We’re going home.” Jared had already thrown his pack into the bus before he went to gather up his friends with only a short pause in momentum to shove Jensen into the fire pit. He figured it was an effective non-verbal way of informing the Nefertem they could find their own way back.

“Jared, be reasonable. You need us. You’re not going to last five minutes against Bastet without us.” Apparently, Jensen was finally using his words just as Jared had seen the error of his ways and given them up. Emotional outbursts were highly overrated, and yet—

“You know what, Jensen, fuck you! You’ve been lying to me this whole time!”

Jensen shook his head; Jared had never actually seen someone vibrate in place until now. “I never lied to you!”

“Omission is the same thing. You knew. You knew all along where they were and you just let me drive all the way to another fucking country.” Adrianne cleared her throat but otherwise kept out of it. Jared poked Jensen in the chest. “You. Fuck. Just stay away from me.”

Jensen grabbed his arm and Jared pulled back, his elbow connecting with Jensen’s face.

“Kebechet only, get on the bus!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

A man with light hair and yellow eyes stood between Jared and the bus.

Enough. Everything was just enough. “Who the fuck are you?” Jared snarled, his lips curling away from his teeth.

Isis materialized next to him with a soft sigh. “Wadjet.”

His friends’ voices chattered through the air around him.

“I thought Wadjet was a girl.”

“Are you going to debate gender norms with the big scary snake guy?”

“Jared, you’re the Ameny, do something.”

Jared glared at Sophia and gritted his teeth. “What would you like me to do?”

“Crush him with your super ninja skills,” Chad called.

“That took me like an hour of mediation, dumbass, I can’t just—shit!”

Jared flew through air, his back smashing into a tree as he was pinned there. Dumbfounded and unable to move, he could only watch all three Nefertem attack as one smooth unit. As pissed as he was, Jared couldn’t help but think they were doing it for him. To protect him. They lasted longer than the Kebechet would have by about three seconds before they were laid out on the ground, coughing and holding their stomachs. It was the thought that counted.

Wadjet surveyed the circle, not a hair out of place. “You will all bleed.” Wadjet lifted his hand and Christian and Sophia both started choking.

“Hey asshole!” Jared called. “Yeah, you ugly motherfucker.”

Wadjet tilted his head away from Chris and Sophia. He drifted towards Jared and laid his hand on top of Jared’s head.

“So pretty.”

His eyes were doing the same freaky lizard thing as the last snake guy Jared had met.

“Let’s hear you scream.”

Jared kind of missed the forked tongue that made comprehensible speech impossible.

Wadjet slowly swiveled his head to survey the group on the ground. “I will dine on their flesh and blood tonight, and you will watch.”

Jared swallowed hard. “That’s just fucking nasty.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Isis wiggling her fingers at him. If she wasn’t going to help, she should just fuck off. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Jared felt the spiritual equivalent of a boot to the ass.

Oh. Right.

Jared slammed both of his hands against Wadjet’s chest and prayed. A bright flash tore out of his fingertips and slid into the snake god; Wadjet’s arms flew back and he hung in midair, light shooting from his eyes and ears. Jared closed his eyes and pushed with that invisible force, and Wadjet exploded into dust around him.

Jared crumpled to the ground and Jensen flew across the clearing towards him. Jared threw his sparking hands up, warding Jensen off. “Don’t touch me.”

…  
…

“Dude, it was like the Highlander. So cool.” Chad shook his head in awe as he climbed on the bus.

“Will you come with us?” Jared asked Isis.

“I can’t. Not my fight. But you have my blessing.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and Jared felt a flash of pain; the eye of Udjat now stood in stark relief against his skin.

“I’m starting to look like a biker.”

Jared kissed her cheek and moved towards the bus. He was so far out of his element that it wasn’t even funny. He had reassessed his idea to leave the Nefertem behind, though; it was equal parts keeping his enemies close and keeping around a powerful guard detail. For once, it had nothing to do with Jensen.

“Ameny? You come back. When you’ve succeeded, you come back.”

Jared held the door open and grinned at the goddess. “You seem pretty sure I’m going to win.”

“It would ruin the ending if you didn’t.”

Predator Ridge, Texas, 2012 AD

“Morgan!”

Jared’s bellow echoed in the quiet bar. They had been driving nonstop for days to get back as quickly as possible. They were tired. They were smelly. They needed a drink and a shower.

“Morgan! We need a liaison. Come out here and liaiz.”

Morgan crashed through the doors that led upstairs, swaying slightly into the walls as he picked his way across the floor.

He came to stop in front of Jared, staring blearily out of red-rimmed eyes. “Is it that time already?”

Misha jumped in front of Jared and propped Morgan up with his shoulder. Morgan patted Misha’s cheek; at least, that seemed to be the intent, but it looked more like he was pawing at Misha’s face. “Okay.” Morgan listed closer and poked Jared in the chest. “Let’s go, then.”

Jared suddenly found himself with an armful of drunk liaison when Morgan overbalanced. Hefting him up, Jared shook the man lightly. “Are you listening to me? We have to get into the compound, preferably undetected.”

Misha jumped behind the bar and returned brandishing two swords, one of which he tossed at Jared’s feet. Jared could appreciate the sentiment, but— “Not really the subtlety I was looking for, Misha.” Jared propped Morgan against the wall and peered into his face. “How about some coffee? Chad, can you make some—”

“Jared,” Misha hissed.

“What?” He turned around to face his friends and angled his hips to get Morgan draped over his back. Couldn’t Misha see that he was busy?

Chris’s eyes were the size of saucers as he frantically nodded his chin to a spot behind Jared. Jared glanced back over his shoulder and took an honest to gods double take. Morgan, the man he’d spoken with practically every day for four years was gone; in his place stood Anubis.

Jared stumbled back a step and grabbed Misha’s arm, pulling the smaller man closer and somewhat in front of him. “Morgan is Anubis? Did we know this?”

Misha jerked his arm free of Jared’s grip and knelt before the god reverently, one of the swords resting in his raised hands.

Jared stared, dumbfounded, as Morgan took the sword and patted Misha on the head.

Was there anyone who wasn’t working against him? Anyone?

Morgan flipped the sword through the air a few times, the metal making a dangerous swishing sound as it moved. “Okay. Let’s go. Though, I should warn you, I’m quite good at this.”

Jared blanched. “Good at what?”

“I’ve been waiting for you a long time, Ameny. In fact, I’d say you’re a few centuries late.”

Jared edged a few more steps back. One day, he was going to wake up and have a thoroughly boring day. If he didn’t die first. “Sorry, I’ve only known for a few days. Let me learn all the rules first, and then we can do this whole…fight to the death thing.”

Anubis shook his head in what Jared guessed was annoyance. It was a little disconcerting to watch the jackal’s mouth form words; the subtly of his expression was going to take some work to decipher. “We should have done this years ago. If you’re mother hadn’t made you so noticeable, this all would have been over and done with.”

Jared’s spine snapped straight. “Don’t talk about my mother.”

“She’s not your mother.”

“What?”

Anubis flipped the sword behind his back and rested it along his shoulders. “You really aren’t that clever, are you? Maybe I gave you too much credit. Your mother is not your mother, of course, which means that your brother and sister are not your family, and you’ve been tearing around the country for nothing.”

Jared shook his head. “You’re lying.” Denial, not just a river in…

“Your mother was Nefertem. _I_ placed you in that pack. _I_ made sure you were fed and clothed. You owe your pathetic little life to _me._ ”

Seriously. Anyone on his side? “Who’s my father?”

Someone coughed “Luke,” and Jared spared a brief moment to glare wholeheartedly at Chad . “Fuck off with that shit. If he’s my father, then that would make me a—”

“A demi-god. Yes. It’s all becoming clear now.” Anubis snapped his fingers in Jared’s face and motioned for Jared to retrieve the other sword. “Good. Let’s fight.”

Jared bent down slowly, his fingertips brushing the metal at his feet. “But my dad was—”

“Oh. Him.” Anubis scoffed. “That stupid prick figured it out when your mother got pregnant with the third. Well, I had to get rid of them,” he said, like the murder of Jared’s father was just a foregone conclusion.

“You killed my dad? What happened to the baby? What happened to—”

“They were nothing to you. They weren’t blood.”

Finding out you were part god would have made most people feel powerful. Jared felt even more inadequate than ever as he straightened his back and tested the weight of the sword in his palm. Anubis made an impatient gesture with his fingers and widened his eye, as if to say “get on with it.”

Jared ran his thumb along the edge of the blade, a thin line of blood welling up. The sword was beautiful, solid gold, the hilt intricately carved. It was obviously well cared for and sharpened often. “If I’m supposed to kill you, why would you do any of this?”

Anubis was morbidly cheerful in his response. “You’re not going to kill me; you’re just supposed to try. At least if we do this, then the whole prophecy is done with and I can wipe your kind from existence.”

“The Kebechet?” Jared’s gaze flicked to Misha. So much for rewarding devotion. “That’s what this is about? Why do you hate us? You made us!”

“Oh, I was drunk, and pissed off. You’ve never done something stupid when you were drunk?” He nodded towards Chris and lowered his voice as if everyone in the room couldn’t hear every breath they took. “Hell, that one’s the poster child for drunken mistakes.”

Jared shoved back, indignant. “Oh, well, great, nice to know that my people’s entire existence wasn’t based on anything more important than a few beers and some sad country songs.”

“Don’t feel bad; the majority of the human race can be blamed on the same thing.”

Jared’s fingers tightened on his weapon. “So what now?”

“We fight. One of us dies. Then I take it from there.”

Jared had known it was useless, but Anubis could have a least given him the courtesy to pretend he had a hope in hell.

“We don’t have to do this.”

“I’m sorry, Jared. I did like you. You had…spunk, sleeping with the enemy; made you kinda interesting. Though I didn’t expect you to roll over so easily. Guess you can take the bitch out of the dog, but—”

Jared swung before he could check the impulse. There was a sickening crunch of muscle separating and Jared stared stupidly at the sword embedded in Anubis’s chest. Jared shook, but he couldn’t make his hands uncurl from the weapon.

Anubis stared at his wound for a moment, his expression equally stunned. “Did not see that coming.”

Jared patted frantically at Anubis’s chest like he could somehow put all the bleeding pieces back together. “Oh shit. Oh shit. I killed a god,” Jared moaned. “Again.” Staring at his hands, he skittered backwards as Anubis slid to the floor, blood spreading in a wide circle around him.

Jared’s ass hit the floor seconds before his brain told him it was time to sit down. He was fascinated by the blood drying between his fingers. There were no sparks. “What happens now?” It took longer than necessary to determine the words had come from his throat.

There was a slight pop and the scent of ozone as Osiris appeared beside Anubis and pulled the sword from his chest with a sickening squelch. “Well, destiny’s a real bitch, huh?” He sighed and closed the jackal’s eyes.

“Well now.” Jared’s gaze focused in time for him to watch Danneel plunge her hand into Anubis’s chest, pulling out his heart and handing it to Osiris. Jared’s wrists burned as the tattoos on his arm glowed white. He glanced around frantically, looking for an escape as Osiris walked towards him. He was still searching for a way out when Anubis’s heart was placed in his hands.

“Judge.”

Jared shook his head, his words a whimper. “I don’t want to. I can’t. This is insane.”

“Look, kid, it’s like this.” Osiris knelt down in front of Jared, one gripping Jared’s shoulder lightly and the other lifting Jared’s trembling fingers to support the heart. “If you don’t embrace your destiny, then all those happy little souls out there get stuck in Purgatory. No one wants that; it’s like waiting in line at the DMV forever.”

Jared watched blood slide off their fingers and drip onto his knee. “I can’t be responsible for whether someone gets eternal happiness or Hell.”

Osiris shook him firmly. “You’re so prosaic. This isn’t about damning a soul; it’s about what kind of life they have next.”

Jared’s really wanted to throw up. Also? He was holding a bloody heart. There was just no ignoring that fact. “Reincarnation is real?”

“Of course it’s real. You think all those souls are just hanging around forever? Come on, the overcrowding would be impossible. No, the human existence is all based on karma. If you’re good in this one, then you get an upgrade in the next. If you’re not…well, you deserve what’s coming.”

“Human.”

Osiris flicked lint off Jared’s shoulder and avoided his eyes. “Hmm?”

“You said human existence. What about us? What about him?”

“You’re more clever than I gave you credit for. You don’t come back.” Osiris shrugged, his face impassive.

“So all of this…this…living is for nothing? We’re just left hanging around in the ether forever?”

“No,” Osiris shook his head, “there is a Heaven and Hell for your kind. But you only get one kick at the can, so to speak, you better make this life worth it.”

“You just said there was no Heaven and Hell.”

“You’re going to argue semantics with me. Really?”

Jared shrugged Osiris’s hand off. There was only so much sarcasm a guy could take. And he was having a really, really bad day.

“Fine. The reason you all were never able to replenish your number is that we don’t want you to. When you all die out, that’s it. But we were nice about it; we found you all a cushy place to stay.”

“Where is that?”

Osiris sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and blew out an exasperated breath. “The Elysian fields or Tartarus. We’re subletting from the Greeks.”

Jared could give two shits if this conversation was boring the god. For once, someone was going to give him answers, and preferably not to try to kill him after. “So what’s the point? If we’re all going to die out, why would he…”

Jared lifted the heart.

Osiris shook his head and patted the heart sympathetically. “He got bored. You all have been a thorn in his side forever. No one takes the result of their night of indiscretion home, you know.”

Jared edged his hands away. That was creepy. “He did this for Bastet?”

“He really did love her. Poor bastard.” Osiris looked sadly at Anubis’s heart for a moment. Jared pulled it closer to his chest; there would be no more organ petting.

Danneel cleared her throat pointedly and Osiris snapped back to the present, smiling brightly at Jared. “Anyway, now that we’re all in the loop.” He looked pointedly at Jared’s hands.

Jared closed his eyes. He had no fucking idea what he was doing. There was a deep pressure winding up his spine to his neck and forcing its way down from his shoulders to his wrists. He knew the concept, the heavy heart being judged unworthy and all that, but he’d never really thought it was actually practised. But what the hell did he know lately. Maybe pigs could fly and unicorns were real. His hands tipped, one lower than the other, and he peeked open one eye to check the results.

The heart was raised higher than his empty hand. Jared let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. Even with circumstances being what they were, he didn’t want to be the one responsible for sending Morgan to hell. He had kind of killed him, after all; that would just be adding insult to injury.

Osiris nodded and handed the heart over to Danneel, who disappeared instantly, taking Anubis’s body with her.

Osiris waggled his eyebrows and offered a little flick of his fingers goodbye. “I’ll be seeing you soon.”

…  
…

“What happens now?”

Jared wiped his mouth and put the trash can down. He had only thrown up twice since Osiris had left, thank you very much. No matter what Chris said about it. “We have to go after Bastet. Now that Anubis is gone, she’s probably gunning for me big time.”

“That’s not new.”

Jared stared blearily at Adrianne, who was sitting cross-legged on the bar. It was just so far away. Sighing, Jared hauled himself over to her and perched on a stool. He kept the trash can with him. Propping his head on his hand, he poked at Adrianne’s leg. “What?”

Adrianne flicked him in the forehead. “Bastet wants you dead. I’m just saying that’s not new. It’s how we were raised. A good dog is a dead dog.”

Jared yawned. “Well, that’s comforting. Not unexpected, but comforting…in a way.”

Genevieve sat up from the booth she’s been lying across. “How so?”

Jared smiled at her. She was so much easier to get along with when they weren’t married. “There aren’t any illusions about where we stand. It’s honest, anyway.”

“Oh, shut up, all of you just shut the fuck up.” Jensen threw his bottle of water at the wall. It would have been much more dramatic if it had shattered, but given that it was plastic, it just bounced. The lack of destruction only amped up Jensen’s ire. “Don’t you all sit there and pretend like nothing’s happened. Like this is any other day.”

Jared bit the bullet. “What do you mean?”

Jensen stalked to the middle of the room, waving his arms as he spoke. “Anubis wanted to get rid of the Kebechet, right? They were never supposed to exist, they were just standing in the way of him and Bastet. So why did Bastet keep us around?”

“To forcibly remind him of his indiscretions.”

Every single person in the room jumped a foot at the unexpected comment. Jared lay his head down on Isis’s lap, who was suddenly sitting next to Adrianne on the bar.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just checking in, honey.” Isis ran her hand over his hair and Jared sighed, content for the moment. He was so very, very tired.

“I was worried you all had your heads shoved too far up your own asses to figure this out.”

Jared sighed. Naptime, over. Sitting up, he glared at the goddess. “What else don’t I know?”

She patted his cheek and Jared felt every inch of the condescending touch. “Nobody has that kind of time. You’re a smart cookie, you’ll figure out what you need to when the time comes.”

“No. No more of this crap. I want the truth.”

“You can’t handle the truth!” she yelled in his face. “I always wanted to say that.” She grinned at Sophia, who approached the bar looking less than impressed.

“No, really, honey, I can’t tell you anything else.”

Jared arched an eyebrow. “Can’t or won’t?”

“Don’t take that tone with me, boy. You have bigger fish to fry right now.”

Adrianne leaned between them. “She’s going to kill us all, isn’t she? The Nefertem?”

Isis nodded. “Most likely.”

Adrianne looked sick and Isis smoothed a hand over her hair. “I know she went all holy mother on your asses, and I hate to have to tell you, but you were all just cannon fodder.”

“But. Why?” Jared had never heard Adrianne’s voice sound so weak.

“Because he made her look stupid. It made her look weak.”

Jensen was confused about a few things. “Why didn’t the Ennead wipe us out?”

Isis rolled her eyes. Jared could hear the “duh” behind her every word. “Everyone needs consequences, even gods.”

“So what? We’re a glorified time-out?”

At Isis’s quick and somewhat reluctant nod of assent, Jared pushed away from the bar.

“Well, now that’s out of the way.” Isis rubbed her palms together. “Let’s plan a mission.”

Adrianne raised an eyebrow. “You are way too happy about this.”

Isis shrugged. “I get bored.”

…  
…

They all decided to rest up and confront Bastet in the morning. Planning a mission was harder than it looked.

Climbing the stairs, Jared paused outside the room he knew Jensen was using. Jared raised his hand to knock and then changed his mind; pushing the door open, he looked down at Jensen sitting on the bed.

“What do you want?”

Despite the less than welcoming greeting, Jared shrugged and let the door fall shut behind him.

Scratching nervously at his eyebrow, Jared circled the bed and stood shuffling his feet against the carpet. “Answers, I guess.”

“To what?” Jensen was not overly friendly, but not entirely dismissive, either. Jared took it as a win.

He sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. “What happens to the third-borns? How long you’ve known I was the Ameny? The meaning of life?”

“Forty two.” Jensen watched him for a moment over the top of the book he was making notes in before setting it aside on the bed. “They don’t all go to the same place. Some end up in the army, some are used as medical experiments. Most are slaves. I figured it out a few months after I met you.”

Stunned by the casual way Jensen had finally enlightened him, Jared paused to absorb for a second before choosing his next words. He wanted answers, needed them, but he was a little apprehensive about what the knowledge would mean for him. People kept secrets for a reason. “How did Jeff find out?”

“I told him.”

Jared sat back, pieces sliding into place. “That night. He was looking for me. You called me upstairs.”

Jensen blew out a breath and became really interested in the wall beside Jared’s head. “That was. You were supposed to… I wasn’t ready.”

Jared grabbed Jensen’s chin and tilted his face back towards him. If this was the truth, Jared wanted to see it in Jensen’s eyes. “How long have you been hiding me from her?”

Jensen blinked, his pupils dilating with something Jared could only guess was fear. “Since the day I met you.”

It would be the easiest thing in the world to get up and walk out the door. Five, maybe six steps, and he knew with every fiber of his being that Jensen wouldn’t follow him. Would let him go, once and for all.

Jared pushed Jensen back on the bed; Jensen looked up at him in surprise. “Don’t you want to know why?”

Jared pulled his shirt over his head. “I’m sick of that question.”

Besides, he didn’t need an answer. Everything he needed to know came ten minutes later when Jensen opened him up and pushed inside.

“That’s it? That’s the plan?”

Jared pasted on his dimples and smiled winningly at Adrianne. If he was going to win a war, he needed soldiers. “Have you got a better idea?”

Adrianne snorted in his face. “I could come up with a hundred better plans.”

“Well then,” Jared wiped some of her errant spit off his face and waved his hands at the others assembled in the bar, “please, share with the class, because right now all we have is ‘storm in with guns blazing.’”

“Okay. Number one. You’re an idiot.” She poked him in the chest and Jared rubbed at the spot. Adrianne had super bony fingers. “Number two, have we all completely lost the plot? This whole mess started with finding your family. I say we regroup and figure out where they are, preferably _before_ Jared gets himself slaughtered.”

Jensen shoved her out of the booth. “Why do you care? You still have some warm fuzzies for your queen? Want to prove how loyal you are so maybe she’ll keep you at the end of her bed while she purges the rest of us?”

“Fuck you,” Adrianne hissed.

“Enough!” Misha yelled, shoving aside the papers on the table and standing on it so they couldn’t help but listen to him. He’d been testy ever since his boss had been stabbed in the chest. “Adrianne is right. We don’t know what we’re getting into here. We need to prepare more; maybe we can talk to the priests, see if anyone remembers how to lay a…siege?”

“A siege. Really? What is this, the Middle Ages? How about we just blow the whole compound sky high and get rid of the bitch once and for all.”

Sophia smacked her brother in the back of the head, saving Jared the effort. “What about the hundred Nefertem in there, Chris?”

Chris jostled her off and rubbed his head. “Sometimes you need to break a few eggs.”

This was why the planning for last night had gone so dismally. Jared slammed his hand down on the table and glowered at them all. “No. We don’t. No more sacrificing, of anybody.”

Adrianne shoved her way back into the booth. “Well, a lot more people are going to die if you don’t make a decision here. You don’t know her like we do. She’s not going to wait while you decide what the humane approach is. You can save thousands by sacrificing hundreds.”

Jared shook his head. “No. There has to be a way to get at Bastet, alone.”

Chris leaned back and stretched his arms out on the back of the booth, succeeding in smacking both his sister and Chad on the backs of their heads. “So we’re back to guns blazing. Perfect.”

Jared put his head on the table as Adrianne punched Jensen in the nose and Genevieve pushed Misha off the table.

Next time, he was getting a better army.

…  
…

In the end, it was a little more subtle than that, but not by much.

Chad, Adrianne, and Jensen went in first. With the resulting commotion of their traitorous return, the rest managed to slip in behind undetected.

Jared couldn’t help feeling like he was still sacrificing his people.

“Where would she be keeping them?” Sophia whispered in his ear. “And in case I fail to mention it later…how come their compound is so much nicer than ours? A nail salon? Really?”

“Sophia! Focus!” They were crouched behind a building just off what constituted the main street. Jared knelt in the middle with a map spread out on the ground in front of him where they could all see. “There are a few possibilities, here and here, or here…or here. We’re not splitting up. Things get totally screwed when that happens in the movies.”

Genevieve inspected the map over his shoulder and smacked him on the head. “Jared, are you basing our rescue mission on fucking _Die Hard_?”

Jared snapped the map closed and ignored her, taking off in the first possible direction from the map. There was entirely too much head smacking going on lately. Besides, it was not _Die Hard_ … It was _Lethal Weapon_.

It was their third try that produced results. Jeff and the others were in the basement of a building that was surprisingly—or thankfully, depending on how he wanted to look at it—barely guarded. They crouched down on the ground again to go over the “plan.” The quotation marks were not metaphorical.

“Okay, Chris, see if you can climb that wall and… Chris?” Jared poked his head out of the huddle, searching.

A sharp snap and a dull groan alerted him to Chris’s whereabouts. Jared swore and broke formation, screeching around the corner instead; he skidded to a stop as Chris drove the heel of his hand into a Guardian’s nose, dropping him like a stone. Crossing his arms, Jared tapped his toes in frustration. Chris shrugged nonchalantly. “He’ll live.” When Jared didn’t give up his Mother Superior impression, Chris glared at him. “Oh, like you never wanted to do that.”

It took little to no effort to release the Kebechet; the problem turned out to be their numbers. Where they had been prepared to smuggle a dozen people out, they were confronted with upwards of sixty. Jared didn’t have time to think about where the others had come from, nor did he want to. None of them had been fed for a week and they were barely able to stumble out of the building. Jared decided to leave Sophia, Misha, and Genevieve with them. It was really pretty important that he won this battle against Bastet, all the more so because there was no way he was getting anyone out of the compound while she was still alive. He turned to Chris, ready to lay out the new plan, and ran smack into a wall of muscle.

“I’m not staying here. I’ve come this far, and you’re not getting rid of me now.”

All five foot ten of his friend was bristling with indignation. “Well that’s good, Chris, because I wasn’t going to leave you with them,” he said slowly, not sure where Chris had gotten the idea.

“Oh. Okay then. Glad I could make you see reason.”

Considering that Bastet’s temple took up seventy five percent of the compound, it wasn’t too difficult to find. Neither was a conveniently placed service entrance. They only encountered a few short scuffles as they made their way through a maze of corridors, but even so, Jared could have done without Chris humming the theme from _Mission: Impossible_. The hallways opened up into a large, ornate chamber and they ducked into an alcove, effectively hiding themselves from anyone who cared to look. Chris whistled through his teeth at what could only be the throne room and elbowed Jared. “Someone has an ego.”

“She’s a goddess. I hear they have issues.”

Jared took in the gold, the jewels, and the priceless antiques. Maybe she was a hoarder. Jared motioned to at least a dozen Nefertem patrolling the room. “How are we going to past them?”

Chris grinned maniacally and pulled two objects out of his pockets with a flourish. “Smoke bomb?”

“Where did you get those?”

Chris tossed one to Jared. “Chad.”

“Were you always this eager to blow shit up?”

Chris pulled the pin on the bomb and tossed into the room. “I’m growing as a person.”

Jared made a mental note to keep Chris and Chad far away from each other in the future before he dove after Chris, who had ducked behind a pillar. There was initially some shouting and cursing as, one by one, the Nefertem succumbed to the toxic gas and then the room fell silent. Jared and Chris crawled forward, low under the rising smoke, and headed for the opposite side of the room. According to the map, Bastet’s private chamber was in that direction. Both of them stopped short as a pair of red stilettos wandered out of the smoke and paused inches from their faces. Jared followed the shoes up past long legs and a red dress clinging to a curvy body; he had to crane his head sideways, but there was no mistaking the face at the top.

Bastet.

“You didn’t really think that was going to work on me… Did you?” she purred.

Jared fumbled for a response. “We, um, we didn’t actually expect you to be here yet. It was more of a distraction for your…and you don’t really care.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” She sounded anything but. “The traitors you’re looking for are awaiting punishment in my personal chambers. I’m going to torture them so beautifully, too; I think I’ll post pictures. It’s going to be a new jewel in my crown.”

Chris whispered out of the side of his mouth. “Kinky bitch.”

“But, now I suppose I’m going to have to wait until we’ve cleared up this prophecy bit.” The goddess sulked. Was she expecting sympathy? “So. Which one of you is it? Who’s the Ameny?” she asked impatiently.

Chris leaped to his feet before Jared could stop him.

“Son of a bitch, Chris!” Jared snapped, scrambling up. “I’m the Ameny. Let him go.”

Bastet stepped closer to Chris before Jared could get between them. “Well, one of you is. I can tell that much.” She ran her fingers down Chris’s face, her lips inches from his. “Is it you?” She put her hands on either side of his jaw, her thumbs rubbing circles at his temples. Chris dropped at her feet.

Bastet shrugged one perfect shoulder, her smile impervious. “Guess not.”

Jared fell to his knees beside Chris, frantically grasping at his neck and wrist, trying to find a pulse.

“Come on along, then.”

Jared bared his teeth. “Fuck you.”

“Such a dirty mouth.” She bent over him and Jared felt her exhale against his back. “If you want to see the others before they’re just burn marks on my carpet, I suggest you follow me.”

Jared had no choice but to follow Bastet as she glided into what he assumed was her bedroom and perched regally at the end of her bed. The three Nefertem knelt with their hands clasped behind their backs, but Jared couldn’t see anything restraining them.

“Oh, they are very well trained.” Jared sneered at the goddess. “They know they’ve done wrong and that penance will be paid.” She slid one foot onto Jensen’s shoulder and he nuzzled his face into her ankle.

“Bad kitty. Such a pity; you were so pretty.” Her foot jerked up and kicked him in the face. Jensen fell back on the floor, blood seeping out his nose. He made no move to get up.

“So docile, so accommodating. When I say so.” Jared watched her, his fingers digging into his thighs to stop him from going to Jensen.

“It’s a pity I never let him fuck you; he’s a tiger in the sack. Pun intended.”

“Yeah,” Jared said, his eyes roaming over Jensen’s prone form. “I got it.”

Bastet reached down and pulled Jensen up by his hair; laying his head in her lap, she stroked it and rubbed his lips. “You know, the saying is true, love; if you lie with the dogs, you wake up with fleas.” Bastet threw Jensen at the others and they all dropped into a pile in the floor.

“This doesn’t have to happen,” Jared pleaded. “Just give them to me and things can go back to the way they used to be.”

Bastet stood and stalked slowly towards him like a…well, like a cat. “I wish that was true, but you and I both know it’s not possible now. The prophecy is awoken. You killed Anubis. It’s a slippery slope.”

“It can stop there, I can…” Jared paused, unsure of how to continue or what to ask for. “We can make a deal. You leave my people alone and you’ll never have to see me again.”

“You know, once upon a time, I may have believed that earnest little puppy face.” She squished his cheeks together in her hands. “But I found out the hard way that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Jared forced his words through the weird contortion of his lips. “Aren’t the dog analogies getting old? I know a few about curiosity and cats, if you’re interested.”

“Not funny.” Bastet released him and slapped him across the face, stepping away and turning her back to him. “Anyway, if nothing else, you have to pay for the death of Wadjet. That one really pissed me off.”

She flicked her fingertips in the air, not even giving him the courtesy of eye contact as she directed a wall of flame that flowed like a wave across the floor and straight at him.

Jared closed his eyes and tried to center himself, force his power to arc. Something. Anything.

Suddenly, the heat that had been licking at his skin was gone. Jared peeked one eye open; he was maybe kinda sorta expecting to see a bubble of white light protecting him.

Jensen stared back, his mouth frozen in a silent scream as he burned in front of Jared. Before Jared could gather up the brain cells to do anything, Adrianne and Chad leapt forward to roll Jensen between them, putting out the flames. Jared clenched his fists, fury lighting up his veins, white heat rolling over his skin.

“You know, I can put up with pretty much anything, bitch.” Bastet wasn’t even paying attention to him; she was painting her fingernails. Jared rumbled a growl that started deep in his gut. “But you’re not allowed to touch my boyfriend.”

He knew he needed to give his batteries time to charge. He was too pissed to wait, though, so in what was quite possibly the stupidest move ever, Jared tackled Bastet.

She threw him off like a cheap coat and Jared landed painfully in front of the fireplace.

“Are you kidding me?” she spat. “That was your big rebellion? Pathetic.”

The Nefertem—Adrianne and Chad, at this point—ran at her, but she tossed them aside as well. Jared backed up. He had no weapons. If he could touch her, then he could try the soul judgment he had done to Wadjet, but he didn’t think she would stand still long enough for that.

“Use the force, Luke.”

Jared glared at Chad. “Seriously, dude, not the time.” Jared was pretty sure the weird thing Chad was doing with his face was supposed to mean something; he wiggled his eyebrows and tossed his head towards the fireplace.

Bastet flung a hand sideways and Chad curled in on himself in pain. “What was that? This isn’t Hansel and Gretel; you don’t have the strength or the power to throw me into the fire.”

Jared looked at Bastet and then back at Chad, who seemed pretty hurt that no one understood his charades.

“He meant this.” Jared raised his arm and a ball of fire hit Bastet right in the face. While she was distracted, he took his chance to pull her against himself, sealing his mouth over hers; Jared threw every ounce of cleansing light he could muster into her body. Her face morphed into her true cat countenance as she choked on the light; Jared squeezed his eyes shut when he felt fur under his cheek.

Moments later, Jared felt Bastet burn up from the inside out. Nothing was left but a husk.

“Holy shit, Jared! You can shoot fire out of your hands!”

“I threw coals in her face, dumbass.”

He held up his hand and inspected the damage. His skin hung off his badly burnt fingers.

“I think I need to pass out.”

Jared went with that.

…  
…

Jared woke up to obvious pain in his hands and a not so obvious pain in his head.

Sitting up, he pressed gingerly at the back of his skull and found a huge bump. “That’s new.”

“You hit your head on the fireplace when you fell,” was the dry reply.

“Adrianne?”

“Yeah. I just. Wanted to say thanks. For saving us. So. Thanks.”

Jared nodded distractedly. Any other day, he would have rubbed that in so hard, but today, he couldn’t care less; he was too preoccupied looking for Jensen’s body.

“He’s not dead.”

Jared pulled his head out from where he’d been checking under the bed. “What?”

“Jensen. He’s not dead. Not quite so pretty at the moment, but he’ll heal. He’s talking to Osiris. Yelling, actually. He wanted to give you time to…well, he wanted to give you time.”

“Brava, boy. Brava.”

Jared leaned back on the bed and fixed his glare in Osiris’s general direction. He was too tired to direct his ire precisely. “Can we just get this over with?”

“Down to business; I like that. It saves so much time when we don’t have to ‘process our feelings.’ Let me just—” He snapped his fingers and Chris’s body appeared next to Bastet’s. “There we are, two birds.”

“He’s not dead.”

Jared’s eyes jerked to Jensen, who may not have been his usual good-looking self, but looked pretty damn near perfect to Jared right then. “Huh?”

Osiris contemplated Chris for a moment, lifting his hand and letting it drop. Jensen hip-checked Osiris out of the way and knelt next to Chris.

“She does this… _did_ this sometimes. She knocks them out and then plays with them for a while.”

Osiris twisted Chris’s head towards Jensen. “He’s not breathing.”

Jensen slapped at the god’s hands. “He’s alive, I’ve seen her do it.”

Jared crawled across the bed towards them. “To who?”

“Some of the Kebechet, over the years, got…ideas. She knew, she always knew. You think I was the first one to assigned to a Kebechet? Any of you who showed the slightest hint of being different, she had you watched.” Jensen trailed off, staring at his queen.

Jared sat down beside Jensen. “We would have noticed if she’d been killing us off.”

Jensen reached a hand out towards Bastet before letting it fall limply in his lap and hung his head. “She just made them _seem_ dead, and then she sent them back.”

Jared blanched. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Chad nudged Chris’s leg with his toe. “They woke up eventually, right?”

Jared buried his face in his knees; his response was muffled but audible. “We burn our dead.”

Chad took a step back. “Oh.”

Osiris clapped his hands together, rubbing them vigorously. “Good talk. Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Wait. What am I supposed to judge, she’s…” Jared stared at the shell of the goddess. Her decimated body was disturbing; the sunken cat face she wore in death was horrifying. “There’s nothing left in there.”

“Well, that answers the question, then, doesn’t it?”

Jared raised an eyebrow.

“You’re supposed to judge the good and evil in a heart. If you burned the damn thing right out of her, then there was nothing left to save.”

“What happens next?”

Osiris blinked at him. “How should I know?”

“Doesn’t the Ennead have a plan?” Jared waved his hands ineffectually. “An endgame?”

“Well…we didn’t really expect you to win.” Osiris looked sheepish. “Come to think of it, I’d watch out for a while. Some of the other deities might take this the wrong way.”

Jared stood up. “The wrong way? What do you mean, the wrong way?”

“Oh, relax, they’ll get over it eventually.”

Chad raised his hand. “How long will that take?”

“A few millennia or so. Some may take longer; Set can hold a grudge like nobody’s business.”

Jared choked on his own spit. “ _Millennia?_ ”

Osiris poked Chris in the cheek, still shaking his head. “If I were you, and thank me, I’m not, I’d look into uniting what’s left of the Nefertem and the Kebechet. It’s your destiny, after all. Unite the nations, bring peace on Earth. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Now, this is just a suggestion, but I hear it’s harder to get to the king if his troops are in the way. Also, an alliance would not be a bad idea.”

Jared felt sparks in his fingertips and curled his hands tightly together. For the time being, Osiris was on their side. Sort of. He probably shouldn’t try to kill him. “An alliance? With who?”

“Well, Sekmet never liked her. Sibling rivalry, what’re you gonna do?”

…  
…

“Dude, you’re like Superman.”

“Superman is a douche. I want to be Batman. Also? Get on the bus, Chad.”

Jared watched Chad and Sophia climb on the bus, their fingers linked.

Chris stepped up beside him , shaking his head. “I don’t like it.”

“Well, Chris, no one asked for your opinion.” Chris pouted. It was probably supposed to be menacing, but Jared knew a pout when he saw one. He pulled him into a headlock. “Don’t worry; somewhere out there is your special someone.”

“Bite me.”

Jared shoved him towards the stairs. “Just get on the bus.”

Jared hugged Misha and Genevieve. Sometime over the last three days, they appeared to have hooked up. Jared had forgiven Misha easily; after all, the guy had _kind of_ been on their side. Also, it was easier to convince Genevieve that their destinies weren’t entwined if she had a fallback.

Adrianne had thrown herself into her new job as a Kebechet and Nefertem liaison, currently working at building an alliance. Jeff, upon hearing about it, had volunteered to be the Kebechet part of that equation. Neither of them was too happy, but they were trying.

“Okay, here are some sandwiches, and call us when you get there.”

Jared rolled his eyes but kissed his momma and sister anyway. He still didn’t know who his birth mother was, but he wasn’t ready for the hoops he’d have to jump through to find out. Yet.

He turned to get on the bus and pulled up short when he saw Jensen leaning against the door. The guy had been AWOL since the battle with Bastet. Jared still wasn’t sure what the disappearing act was supposed to mean.

“I thought…” Yeah, he had nothing.

Jensen casually folded his arms over his chest. “That you were going to leave me behind? I’m a guardian, Jared. I guard.”

Jared remained silent.

“This isn’t gonna be easy, and you’re gonna need me.”

Jared laughed, not an ounce of humour in it. “No. I’m not.”

Pushing past Jensen, he got on the bus and slid into the driver’s seat. He put his hands on the wheel and focused on the view out the windshield; he took a deep breath when Jensen slid into the passenger seat.

“I don’t need you. You’ve lied to me for years and screwed my head six ways from Sunday. I know what you can do...to my emotions.” He slid his gaze away and Jensen had the good grace to look guilty. “I don’t know if I can ever trust that what I feel for you is real.”

Yeah. That tidbit had been a real kick in the ass when a drunken Adrianne had started spilling all the Nefertem secrets. Jared toyed with the keys hanging out of the ignition. If Jensen wanted to dispute it, he should have damn well been there instead of gods knew where for the last few days. Grudge-holding was Jared’s new sport of choice.

“You also saved my life, probably more times than I know about. But I’m going to see Isis, and she’s going to teach me about what I need to do to be the Ameny, and I don’t need your help for that, either.”

He ducked his head and glanced sideways at Jensen, who was sitting quietly, his jaw clenched tight, not saying a thing to defend himself. Jared sighed. It sucked so fucking hard that pretty much everything he’d just said was absolute bullshit. “But I want you. I think without you, I’m going to fuck this up way more than I will with you. I don’t know if that’s you or me, but I’m willing to take the chance.”

Jared watched as a weight slid off Jensen’s shoulders. Producing a pair of sunglasses from his pocket, he winked at Jared and focused his attention on getting the spots of the lenses, rubbing them with his shirt. Adrianne, who had obviously been eavesdropping, threw Jensen’s bags up onto the rack; with a small smirk on her face, she slammed the door to the front of the bus and locked it behind her. Okay. Jared hadn’t really been expecting hearts and flowers, but a little bit of acknowledgement would not have been remiss. Jared turned the keys in the ignition and set the shift to drive; there was a light tap on his hand and Jared glanced over at Jensen.

“I love you, you know. In case that wasn’t clear.”

They really had no idea what was coming; a pantheon of Gods was waiting around the corner to possibly kill them, snake people could be lurking behind every bush they passed, and somehow, he was supposed to unite two nations of peoples who had hated each other for millennia so that they could fight a war they didn’t even know was coming. Jared watched the sun slide below the hills with a big stupid grin, dimples and all lighting up his face.

“Yeah. I got it.”

 

 

_What lies behind us and what lies before us, is nothing compared to what lies within us._

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Felicia slammed down the lid to her laptop and crumpled the map she’d spread out on the table into a little ball.

“Fucking Google fucking maps. Useless piece of shit.”

Blowing her bangs out of her face, she picked up her phone and added two days to her trip calendar.  
It was a good thing her new bosses had head hunted her already, because if they knew that the brilliant mind they were hiring couldn’t even follow a map, they might have reconsidered. Given her spotty history with driving across the country, she really should have taken the offered plane ticket.

She leaned back, taking a sip of her iced tea, and promptly spit it all over the remains of her lunch.

She had vaguely noticed the bus when it had pulled up. It was hard not to see the bright purple “shaggin waggin” label, but that wasn’t what had her scrambling to smooth the map out; she held it in front of her face as she scrunched down low in the booth.

The little bell over the door rang and she peeked over the top of the map as Shaggy and Prettier walked in. The crack head, Scruffy, and some squinty guy she’d never seen before followed them.

Sinking even lower in her seat, Felicia watched them take a booth as far in the back as they could manage. She couldn’t help noticing their camaraderie as they shoved and laughed with each other. Other people got up and left when it became apparent that they were staying, but Felicia was rooted to the spot.

She’d seen them on TV. Hell, everyone had; it was pretty hard to miss not one but two nations of people standing up and declaring war on the gods. Part of her was scared shitless and another part was intrigued; both parts conspired to keep her trapped in her seat.

Shaggy, who she now knew was Jared, the Ameny and the leader of the Kebechet, stood up. He walked down the aisle towards her, smiling and tipping his hat. “Ma’am.”

She was struck dumb by those damn dimples. Again. Pushing herself back up in the booth, Felicia leaned over and stared as he walked past. Yep. The man still had a damn fine ass. Smiling to herself, she turned back to face her table and shrieked like a little girl.

Sliding back down beneath the table, she smiled tentatively at Jensen, leader of the Nefertem, who was sitting in her booth, smirking at her.

Felicia sat up slowly. “Erm. Hi?”

Jensen ignored her for a moment, his eyes tracking Jared to the bathroom before he focused back on Felicia.

“Hello, Felicia. I wanted to know how Jenna was doing.”

Felicia gaped. Most definitely a gape. It had been five years since her last road trip and three since she’d quit needing therapy to get over it. She had been three hours out on the interstate before she’d remembered Jenna; she’d spent two hours circling the town in her car and another hour sitting in the bar parking lot trying to figure out what to do. Just when she had made up her mind to call the police, Jensen had shown up with an unconscious Jenna in his arms and dumped her in Felicia’s backseat.

Felicia hadn’t stuck around to ask how he’d known where to find her; she’d just thrown the car into drive and gotten the hell out of dodge. She had tried to stop at a hospital in the next town, but Jenna had refused to get out of the car. Unable to see anything physically wrong with her, Felicia had let it go. Jenna hadn’t said a word the remaining two-day drive home.

Last she’d heard, Jenna had joined the Peace Corps building villages in Africa. Felicia was not prepared to share any of that. “Jenna? She’s fine. I guess. We weren’t close…”

“That’s good.”

They sat in awkward silence for a moment. Awkward for Felicia, anyway; Jensen looked like he couldn’t care less. She jumped as Jared walked by and rapped his knuckles on the table. “Usual?” he asked Jensen, his voice dripping with something she sure as hell had never heard directed at her. Her gaze flew between the two of them and that night a million years ago came back. Swollen lips and stubble burn.

Jensen nodded casually but their eyes held an entirely different conversation. “Yep. I’ll be right there.”

She watched their fingertips brush on the table, and it might have been too many hours on the road, but she could have sworn she saw white lights arcing between them.

“You take care, Felicia,” Jensen said gently, patting her hand for good measure.

She nodded dumbly and packed up her stuff as soon as he left the table. Paying her check and keeping her eyes averted until the last second, she walked out the door, offering them a shy smile as she passed.

Two hours down the road, she slammed her foot down on the brake and fishtailed across the road, completely sure that she had never told Jensen her name. Restarting her car after a moment, she eased back onto the highway. She could happily live the rest of her life without ever having to see those people again.

Besides.

They drove one fugly bus.


End file.
